BENGALURU: The Commercial Taxes department has arrested two Bengaluru-based businessmen on charges of committing serious fraud under the GST laws by claiming crores of rupees worth input tax credit (ITC) without any real sale taking place, and without anyone paying the GST.An economic offences court in Bengaluru has remanded the two to judicial custody, while the department’s enforcement team has continued with its investigations to look for others possibly involved in the fraud.The arrests are first such instance in Karnataka , according to Commercial Taxes Commissioner M.S.Srikar.The fraud came to light after the department’s data analytics software (GSTPro) threw up hints at a string of suspicious transactions involving ARS Enterprises, a business in Chikkabanavara dealing in ferrous and non-ferrous scrap.The department’s enforcement team led by Additional Commissioner Nitesh K Patil and Assistant Commissioner G.Viswanatha arrested its proprietor Hameed Rizwan Parthipady Ismail (28) after physical inspections of his business area. Ismail has been accused of issuing GST invoices worth Rs 45.94 crore to his customers, in the 13-month period since the launch of GST, without selling them any goods or services.However, after recording the sale/purchase transactions, Ismail as well as a number of his customers claimed input tax credit from the department. Jeetendra Kantilal Gandhi, who owns Gandhi Iron and Steel Company in Kalasipalyam, was found to be one such customer. He is the second person arrested in the case. The invoices showed ARS owed Rs 8.16 crore in GST to government on a series of fictitious sale transactions.The case highlighted the data-based intelligence is key to ensuring higher degree of compliance, the department said in a press note.