M/s NAVYA NUCHU v. THE STATE OF TELANGANA

Introduction

The writ petition was filed by Shri Rishi Nand Kishore Gupta, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of M/s Fino Payments Bank Limited, challenging his arrest by the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) under Section 132(1)(i) of the CGST Act. The investigation related to an alleged large-scale GST evasion involving illegal online gaming platforms, shell companies, dummy programme managers/resellers, payment aggregators and fintech service providers.

According to the Department, the petitioner played a key role in an organized syndicate that facilitated online gaming transactions through shell entities without issuance of tax invoices and without payment of GST. The DGGI alleged that transactions exceeding ₹3,000 crore had been routed through the network, resulting in an estimated GST evasion of approximately ₹840 crore.