Ahmedabad, Jan 26: A man has been arrested for allegedly issuing fake invoices to claim Rs 177.64-crore input tax credit, the Central GST department said Saturday.

The man, identified as Ehsas Ali Saiyad, a resident of Vadodara, was the mastermind of a scam involving issuing of fake invoices, said the office of the Central GST and Central Excise Commissionerate in a release in Gandhinagar.

The 29-year-old allegedly floated 66 fake companies with as many dummy owners in whose name he issued tax invoices to claim input tax credit (ITC), it said.

The accused obtained GST registration, GST identity cards, login-password, SIM cards, bank accounts and online passwords in the name of these dummy owners, said the commissionerate.

"The accused would issue fake bills in the name of the entities created by him. He issued tax invoice of taxable value of Rs 1,210 crore to claim input tax credit of Rs 177.64 crore," it said.

He was arrested under provisions of the CGST Act and further investigation was on, said the release.

Under Goods and Services Tax, input credit is the tax benefit manufacturers get for the GST they pay on purchase of goods. Unscrupulous elements use fake bills to claim higher ITC.

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Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.

The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.

They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.

"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.

But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.

The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.

A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.

The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.