Bicholim police have arrested a 38-year-old Mumbai resident for allegedly committing a GST fraud worth Rs 75 lakh. The accused, Dinesh Punja Patni, reportedly obtained registration on the Central GST portal in August 2021 under the trade name Green Agro Industries using forged documents.
The complaint was filed by Sophia Lawrence E Vaz, a GST officer with the Department of Commercial Tax, at Bicholim police station on January 13. The officer alleged that Patni, intending to cheat, deliberately failed to pay tax on supplies, causing a substantial loss to the government exchequer. The registration application showed the principal place of business at Parye, Bicholim, and included falsified documents such as an electricity bill and a consent letter.
During investigation, police discovered that the individual who had submitted the fraudulent documents was actually Dinesh Punja Patni, not Omprakash Kewat, as initially mentioned in the application.
Patni was produced before a court in Belapur and granted a two-day transit remand. Subsequently, the Bicholim JMFC placed him in four-day police custody for further investigation.
