Chandigarh, Feb 18 (Reporter) In a major breakthrough, the Punjab Excise and Taxation department, in a joint operation with the Fatehgarh Sahib police, has successfully apprehended an alleged GST fraudster for claiming a fake ITC amounting to Rs 3.65 Crore, a state minister said on Sunday. State Excise and Taxation Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said here that a show cause notice was served upon accused Deepak Sharma by the Deputy Commissioner State Tax, Ludhiana on January 2023, confronting him about ingenuine ITC claimed by him amounting to Rs 3.65 crore. But he neither deposited the tax nor submitted any reply. Thus, an order under the section of the Act ibid was passed by the adjudicating authority on June, 2023, and a demand of Rs 11.75 Crore was created including Rs 4.45 crore as interest and Rs 3.65 crore as a penalty, said Cheema. He added that an investigation was conducted by TIU and the Sales Tax Officers and it was found that Deepak Sharma had submitted a forged GST Registration Certificate to a Bank. He said that this bank account has been frozen by the Bank at the request of Sale Tax Officer Fatehgarh Sahib and a recovery notice for Rs 26 lakhs has been sent to the said bank. He said that a special task force constituted by the SGST department acting on meticulous intelligence gathered over several weeks conducted simultaneous raids along with the Fatehgarh Sahib police at multiple locations linked to the accused. He said that the authorities are in the process of identifying and pursuing all entities involved in this fraud, an FIR has been registered, and further investigations are underway to determine the total extent of the fraud and recover the evaded taxes...////...