The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted multi-city searches in Gujarat in connection with a money laundering case linked to a GST "fraud" in which eight people, including a journalist, were arrested recently by the state police, official sources told PTI.

About 23 premises in cities of Rajkot, Junagadh, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Veraval were being raided by the federal agency after a case was filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said. Premises linked to arrested journalist Mahesh Langa, who works with The Hindu newspaper, were also being covered.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch.

The city Crime Branch registered the FIR against several persons and entities after getting a complaint from the Central GST over an alleged scam involving shell firms set up to defraud the government through bogus input tax credits and fraudulent transactions.

Langa along with seven others was arrested after the Central GST found some suspicious transactions in bogus firms floated in the name of his wife and father using forged documents.

After the registration of the FIR, the Crime Branch and Gujarat's Economic Offences Wing raided 14 locations across the state, including in Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Surat, Kheda and Bhavnagar.

According to the Crime Branch, more than 200 fraudulently created firms worked across the country in an organised manner to defraud the government exchequer by availing bogus input tax credits and forged documents and identities were used to create these firms for tax evasion.