Bengaluru/Jamshedpur: Jamshedpur’s Kanishka, a 2021-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, has brought recognition to his hometown by spearheading a major crackdown on interstate GST fraud spanning Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Currently serving as Additional Commissioner, Enforcement (South Zone) in the Karnataka Commercial Taxes Department, Kanishka is heading the enforcement team that recently unearthed and dismantled a massive fake invoice racket involving transactions worth Rs 1,464 crore. The cartel fraudulently claimed and passed on Input Tax Credit (ITC) worth approximately Rs 355 crore without any actual movement of goods.
The high-profile operation underscores intensified efforts by GST enforcement agencies to curb tax evasion and dismantle organized financial fraud networks operating across state borders.
According to an official press note, the fraud was detected using advanced GST system analytics, including the department’s in-house developed Non-Genuine Taxpayer module and IP address tracking, which revealed abnormal invoicing patterns and circular ITC flows. The investigation exposed the use of forged documents to obtain multiple GST registrations, the creation of shell entities, and the deliberate cancellation of registrations to evade scrutiny.
In a first-of-its-kind coordinated interstate operation, the Enforcement Wing (South Zone) conducted simultaneous search and seizure operations in Bengaluru, Chennai, Vellore, and Pernampattu, seizing mobile phones, SIM cards, pen drives, bank statements, and rubber stamps of several fake firms. Four key accused were arrested with the cooperation of Tamil Nadu’s Commercial Taxes Department and remanded to judicial custody by the Special Court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru.
Kanishka has also been conferred with the Best Revenue Officer of the Year 2024 award by Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda at a grand ceremony in Bengaluru.
A former student of Loyola School, Jamshedpur, Kanishka has also served as Assistant Commissioner and Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Karwar. During his tenure, he played a key role in improving public access to revenue services, streamlining land records management, and strengthening grievance redressal mechanisms, benefiting citizens at the grassroots level.
Kanishka is the son of former Tata Steel executive Prabhat Sharma. His achievements have been widely appreciated both in Karnataka’s administrative circles and in Jamshedpur, where his success is being seen as a source of pride and inspiration for aspiring civil servants.
