Ahead of Assembly polls, Gujarat ATS, GST unit raid 200 locations

Ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the state GST department are jointly carrying out searches at around 200 locations in the state.

The raids are being conducted at places linked to more than 100 firms and people are being questioned for suspected tax evasion and similar offences.

According to reports, several people have been detained on Saturday (November 12).

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Apart from the officials of the ATS and the state Goods and Services Tax (GST) department, the Ahmedabad crime branch is involved in the mega operation, PTI reported citing sources.

According to the sources, the searches are being carried out in several districts of the state, including Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar, against 122 firms.

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The authorities are questioning around 74 suspects in this connection and the operation is likely to expose large-scale tax-related offences, they said.

Several cases of issuance of bogus bills to commit input tax credit (ITC) fraud have been detected in the state in recent times, the sources said.

The state elections will be held in two phases, on December 1 and 5. The votes will be counted on December 8.

(With agency inputs)