DGGI Arrests Ranchi Traders in Rs. 11 Crore Fake GST ITC Scam

DGGI Arrests Ranchi Traders in Rs. 11 Crore Fake GST ITC Scam

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Jamshedpur unit, has taken sudden and strict action on GST fraud and has taken two individuals named Kumar Lav Agarwal and Gulbahar Malik, into custody. They both are arrested in Ranchi for claiming fake input tax credit (ITC) claims worth over Rs. 11 crore. Both of them cheated the government of around 50 crore in the GST scam by using fake invoices and fake companies.

The investigation was led by Joint Director Sarthak Saxena and his team, who tracked their financial activities closely and revealed that Kumar Lav Agarwal is a battery dealer and authorised distributor, while Gulbahar Malik is a trader of used batteries. He is accused of generating fake GST bills without a real movement of goods.

According to a senior DGGI official, both individuals were arrested on Tuesday evening on charges of GST evasion of Rs. 50 crore by creating fake bills worth Rs. 250 crore through nearly a dozen bogus companies such as DD Enterprises, FM Traders, Verma Enterprises, New India Trading, Capital Enterprises, Zishan Trading, and others, for fraudulently claiming Input Tax Credit (ITC).

Among both the individuals, Gul Bahar Malik was alone accused of GST evasion worth Rs. 10 crore, and Luv Agrawal alone, with some other individuals, was involved in a Rs. 40 crore scam.

DGGI officers had been investigating them for 4 to 5 months. In April 2025, DGGI raided their locations; however, both successfully succeeded in escaping from the locations at the time. On Tuesday, they were both called to the office of DGGI in Jamshedpur. Only Luv Agrawal entered the office to give his statement, and Gul Bahar Malik stayed in the car itself. In Agrawal’s statement, he claimed he had no phone with him; however, his driver used to manage more than three phones belonging to him. All the phones were immediately confiscated.