The case came to light after a Noida resident and editor of a media firm located in Sector 16, filed a complaint at the Sector 20 police station on May 10 about identity fraud on his PAN card.

“The gang has been active for the last five years, and at least PAN card details of 635,000 people have been recovered from them. The suspects used these PAN card details to set up fake businesses and register them with GST numbers. We found 2,660 such fake companies that were registered using false permanent account number card information. These bogus companies were then used to generate e-way bills (GST related challans for transporting consignments) worth more than ₹2- ₹3 crore per month on each company,” said Laxmi Singh, commissioner of police in Gautam Budh Nagar.

“Five of the suspects are certified chartered accountants. We are in contact with GST officials, who have expressed concern that some businessmen may have purchased these fake companies in order to obtain GST input credit from the government and evade tax,” said Rajneesh Verma, assistant commissioner of police-1, Noida

Verma explained the suspects first established fake companies by illegally purchasing personal data, including names, fathers’ names, dates of birth, and personal account numbers, from a service provider.

“The suspects used this data to fill out bogus rent agreement and electricity bill forms found online, or to edit existing bills with the data,” he explained, adding, “Then they looked for unemployed people living in slums or temporary settlements and paid them between ₹1,000 and ₹1,500 for their Aadhaar cards. Finally, the suspects changed their phone numbers on the cards.”

The suspects formed a shell company using these documents, and filed GST returns for these shell companies, said investigators familiar with the matter. The suspects then sold these shell companies for ₹80,000- ₹90,000 in cash, said investigators.

“After that, those who bought the fake companies used to offer attractive offers of GST input credit refund and low-cost conversion of black money to white money to their businessmen clients all over the country,” Verma explained.

“As a result, the government has been defrauded in Goods and Services Tax fraud and tax evasion in the same manner by this gang,” DCP Chander added.