Jagran correspondent, Shahjahanpur/Roza. Police have arrested Ghaziabad resident bank branch manager Sanjeev Gupta and Amethi resident Varun Sharma in the case of input tax credit (ITC) evasion of Rs 10.78 crore by creating a bogus GST firm. These two people used to buy registrations of bogus firms from Delhi resident Gaurav Yadav, the gang leader, for Rs 23 thousand and sell them to other people for Rs 65 thousand. Which were used in tax evasion.
Forms of 90 firms have also been recovered from the mobile phones of the accused. In this case, Gaurav Yadav, Deepak and Siddharth Pandey of Prayagraj have been arrested last month. On May 28, Assistant Commissioner of the State Tax Department, Bhavna Chandra, had lodged an FIR of tax evasion of Rs 10 crore 78 lakh by creating a bogus firm in Roja in the name of Etawah resident Mandeep Singh.
SP Rajesh Dwivedi had constituted SIT for investigation. After which, on December 5, 2025, Gaurav Yadav, Deepak and Siddharth Pandey were arrested in this case. Many names had come to light on the basis of their interrogation. On Tuesday evening, Roza police received information that two members of the gang were about to come near Subhash intersection, based on the information, the team stopped a Thar and arrested Sanjeev Gupta, resident of Modinagar area of Ghaziabad and Varun Sharma alias Golu, resident of Gauriganj, Amethi.
Sanjeev told that he is a manager in a bank branch in Modinagar. She met Gaurav Yadav in the year 2022. Then, on the advice of Gaurav, current accounts were opened in the bank of Varun Sharma, Prince Sharma, Akash, which were later closed due to over limit. It was through Gaurav that he met Siddharth Pandey. Both of them told that they have bogus GST firms.
Whatever business customers come to the bank, they can be sold by telling them about these firms. Being influenced by both of them, he started buying bogus firm registrations for Rs 23 thousand, which he sold through a person resident of Delhi for Rs 65 thousand. The data of 90 firms in his mobile belongs to these bogus firms. Whereas Varun Sharma told that he works with Gaurav Yadav.
Gaurav has opened current accounts for him and his other associates. He operated these accounts. Inspector in-charge Rajiv Kumar said that the gang members used to advertise loans on Instagram by claiming to be their own finance company without taking any thing as collateral. Those students and needy people who fall into their trap, make rental building agreements and bogus firms from their records.
Those in whose name the firm was formed had no information about it. By showing business based on that, they would evade tax in the form of ITC. The accused used to buy SIM on fake ID to form a firm and open an account. In this case, Assistant Commissioner Bhavana Chandra was also suspended for negligence in verification.
This is the firm registration process
In GST registration, the applicant uploads his application and all the forms online on the portal. In case the records are incomplete, the officials raise objection and ask them to complete them. After which the firm is registered within seven days. If for some reason the signature cannot be done then approval is given automatically. State tax department officials have to conduct on-site inspection within a month.
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