Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
he Ahmedabad Zonal Office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted a second set of search operations at seven premises across Ahmedabad, Surat, and Bhavnagar districts of Gujarat on Sunday, in connection with a suspected nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) scam expected to reveal crores of rupees of losses caused to the government exchequer.
During the search operations, “incriminating documents” were recovered and seized, said a statement from the agency on Monday. It alleged that based on their investigations, Mahesh Langa, senior assistant editor of The Hindu, was “controlling” a firm called M/s DA Enterprises, “from whose premises a large quantum of unaccounted cash was seized by the police authorities, and it is further gathered that various other benami transactions are suspected to have happened with shell companies.”
The ED’s case of money laundering against M/s Dhruvi Enterprises & others was filed on the basis of an FIR filed by the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Gujarat Police, which, in turn, had been come after the receipt of a complaint from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) against 220 shell entities of a group of “organised criminals”.
In the FIR, the complaint reads that M/s Dhruvi Enterprises was allegedly created based on “fake documents” to obtain GST registration. Later, the entity “raised invoices in the name of 12 different entities”, including M/s DA Enterprises, who allegedly availed fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) from the government’s GST department.
The ED statement on Monday further said, “During investigations, inquiries were made from statutory authorities, and various statements were recorded under the PMLA, which could not establish the genuineness of these transactions. Accordingly, searches were conducted at the locations of such persons/entities, to unearth (the) larger conspiracy involved in the same.”
The ED had previously, on October 17, conducted their first set of searches in the case at 23 locations at Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Veraval, Rajkot, Surat, and Kodinar, including the registered addresses of the entities “availing ITC” in this case.
This statement from the ED comes just a day after several media associations issued statements calling for a “fair investigation” into cases against Mahesh Langa. Notably, apart from this case, Langa is also named as an accused in an FIR filed by Gandhinagar Police regarding the theft and possession of confidential documents of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB).
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
