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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting raids at 23 locations in six cities of Gujarat in an alleged Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud matter.
Multiple ED teams conducted simultaneous searches early on Thursday in Gujarat's Surat, Rajkot, Junagadh, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Veraval cities. Officials, privy to the development, said that the raids were conducted at the office and residential premises of the suspects linked to the case. The move comes three days after senior journalist Mahesh Langa on Monday withdrew his plea in the Gujarat High Court challenging the magistrate court's 10-day remand order in the GST fraud case against him. The Ahmedabad crime branch arrested Langa, a senior journalist with a leading newspaper, in the fraud case on October 8. The next day, a court sent him to a 10-day police remand. The Ahmedabad crime branch filed a First Information Report (FIR) against multiple individuals and entities following a complaint from the Central GST regarding an alleged scheme involving shell companies designed to deceive the government through false input tax credits and fraudulent activities. Langa was taken into custody after the Central GST uncovered suspicious transactions linked to fake firms established in his wife's and father's names using forged documents. Following the FIR, both the crime branch and Gujarat's Economic Offences Wing conducted raids at 14 locations statewide, including cities like Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Surat, Kheda, and Bhavnagar. To date, the crime branch has arrested eight individuals in connection with this case. As per crime branch reports, over 200 illegally established firms operated nationwide in a coordinated effort to defraud the government by claiming fraudulent input tax credits, with forged documents and identities used for tax evasion. (ANI)
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