Ahmedabad: A 76-year-old trader from Ahmedabad is fighting to clear his name after a trusted financial adviser allegedly turned his company into a front for tax evasion. For over two decades, the trader ran an industrial gas equipment business in Sarangpur peacefully till he received tax demand notices for over Rs 1.2 crore. His former tax consultant had allegedly filed fraudulent GST returns and generated fake invoices in the name of his firm, resulting in the tax recovery notices.Facing financial ruin, the businessman has pressed charges of cheating and criminal breach of trust against his former adviser.The businessman initially relied on a chartered accountancy firm for his business. In 2015, the accused — an employee at that firm — left to start his own consultancy. He convinced the trader to shift all his accounting and taxation work to him, using his years of familiarity with the firm’s finances to win his trust.The trouble began with the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in 2017. The accused allegedly set up the firm’s GST account using the trader’s mobile number but cleverly linked it to an email address that only he could access. Relying blindly on his consultant, the businessman never asked for copies of the filed returns. The deception finally unravelled in Dec 2025 when the trader received GST show-cause notices demanding a recovery of Rs 54.33 lakh for the 2019-20 financial year and Rs 65.59 lakh for 2021-22, adding up to a total tax demand exceeding Rs 1.2 crore.When the trader confronted him, the accused tried to brush it off by claiming the notices were a bureaucratic mistake and promised to settle the matter through his internal department contacts. Growing suspicious of the consultant’s evasive excuses, the trader bypassed him to check the official GST portal and speak directly with tax officials. He discovered that massive purchases and sales had been logged under his firm’s name between 2019-20 and 2022-23, a period during which his actual business was largely inactive. The consultant had allegedly used the firm’s credentials to generate fake invoices and supply them to unknown traders without the owner’s consent.The Khadia police have now registered a case of cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery against Shah, and a full investigation is underway.
