MEERUT, Jan. 15 -- With the arrest of two key accused, including a sales manager of a private bank, Shahjahanpur police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a major GST fraud racket involving the creation of bogus firms to evade taxes worth Rs.10.77 crore. The arrests were made following a tip-off while the accused were allegedly on their way to meet a lawyer. The arrested men were identified as Sanjeev Gupta, a Ghaziabad resident working as a sales manager at a private bank, and Varun Sharma alias Golu of Amethi. Earlier on December 5, police had arrested three other members of the same gang. Superintendent of police Rajesh Dwivedi said the case dates back to May 28, 2025, when assistant commissioner of state tax Bhavna Chandra lodged an FIR at Roza police station over GST evasion through fake firms. A special investigation team (SIT) led by the SP (city) was subsequently constituted. Investigations revealed that Gaurav Yadav and Deepak from Delhi, along with Siddharth Pandey from Prayagraj, had allegedly been running an organised racket for the past five years. The gang allegedly floated fake GST firms using forged documents to facilitate tax evasion and fraudulent claims of input tax credit (ITC). Police said the accused lured people through social media advertisements promising easy loans. Once victims responded, the gang collected their Aadhaar and PAN cards and electricity bills, prepared fake rent agreements, and used these documents to obtain bogus GST registrations. Current accounts were then opened in the names of these firms and used to help traders evade GST and illegally claim ITC, in return for commissions ranging from 5% to 20%. Acting on specific intelligence on Tuesday, Roza police set up a barricade near Hathoda on the highway and intercepted a car around 2 pm. Two occupants were taken into custody, and a large number of forged documents were recovered from the vehicle. During interrogation, police recovered extensive data related to fake firms from Sanjeev Gupta's mobile phone. He told investigators that he met Gaurav Yadav in 2022, after which he helped open current accounts in the names of Varun Sharma, Prince Sharma and Akash at a private bank's Pitampura branch in New Delhi. These accounts were later closed after exceeding transaction limits. Gupta also admitted to meeting Siddharth Pandey through Gaurav and said the group was actively involved in creating fake GST firms. He claimed to have procured around 90 such firms, earning Rs.23,000 per firm by finding customers who required bogus entities. Varun Sharma told police that he worked for Gaurav Yadav, who would get current accounts opened in the names of associates and operate them himself. He claimed they were on their way to the GST office when police intercepted and arrested them. Police said further investigation was underway and efforts were being made to identify and arrest other associates and traders who allegedly availed illegal ITC through the fake firms....