Uttarakhand GST dept files 3,500-page charge sheet in illegal timber trade case

The charge sheet against the mastermind, Hussain, was carried by SIB officials, conducted under Uttarakhand tax department officials such as Commissioner, Additional Commissioner and Joint Commissioner.

New Delhi: The Special Investigation Bureau of Uttarakhand GST department has filed a 3,500-page charge sheet in the court of Rudrapur Chief Judicial Magistrate against Shahnawaz Hussain, the mastermind of the illegal timber trade.

Hussain, who was arrested on October 22, is alleged to be the brain behind the gang which engaged in the trade of timber through fake companies and forged bills, swindling the state of crores of rupees in tax evasion.

So far, the investigators have unearthed an estimated GST theft of more than Rs 18 crore on a Rs 100-crore timber turnover.

The charge sheet comes after a yearlong investigation carried out by a team of SIB officials, conducted under the direction of Uttarakhand tax department officials such as Commissioner Dr Ahmed Iqbal, Additional Commissioner Rakesh Verma, and Joint Commissioner Thakur Ranveer Singh.

The department is being represented in the court by Special Public Prosecutor Lakshy Kumar Singh.

The charge sheet, which took 58 days to prepare, contains inputs from the forensic study of over 200 bank accounts of bogus firms, messages and WhatsApp chats of more than 60 mobile phones, soft documents from 30 computers, and a large number of paper files and forged bills seized from the accused persons' offices and residential premises.

"We have presented before the court the evidence of tax evasion worth Rs 20 crore through bogus sale of 113 crore timber to more than 28 firms that exist only on paper," a senior official from the SIB said.

"While our probe was going on, many timber companies, who were evading tax by colluding with these fake firms, started paying their tax genuinely to the dept out of fear of criminal action against them. Since we took up this case about a year ago, companies have paid tax in crores." Hussain had been absconding since March 4, when the department launched an intense search and seizure operation in the Jaspur area of Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand, the official said.

The SIB team used drones, advanced digital tracking, and analysis software like FALKAN, 'Artificial Superintelligence,' and electronic surveillance.

The probe found that a group of traders floated bogus firms to give legal cover to their illegal trade of timber and its products and evade GST worth crores of rupees in Udham Singh Nagar, one of the biggest timber markets in the country, the official said.

The investigators suspected the involvement of people from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar, and Rajasthan.

The operation involved 27 teams with more than 300 tax and forensic officials and financial technology experts, who raided 27 commercial establishments and residences of transporters, advocates, and chartered accountants, officials said.

The investigators, who had been tracking these networks for the past nine months, found multiple firms in the name of a single person, done apparently with the sole purpose of defrauding the tax authorities, they said.

The investigators suspect the involvement of bank officials too in helping the accused with the opening of accounts without a proper KYC process. The network involved 25 to 30 key people working in collusion with each other, officials said.

During the investigation, firms and unregistered places of business that were found locked were sealed with the approval of the district administration.