Birpara: 2 bizmen held for Rs 92 crore GST fraud

MP  | 5 July 2025 | Alipurduar: The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate has arrested two businessmen from Dalgaon-Birpara on charges of large-scale tax evasion and forgery related to the Goods and Services Tax.

The accused—Gopal Rathi and Sushil Agarwal—were produced before the Siliguri ACJM Court on Thursday, which remanded them to seven days of judicial custody.

According to officials, Rathi and Agarwal both operate a cement trading business in the Dalgaon-Birpara area. Under the guise of this legitimate enterprise, the duo is alleged to have defrauded the Indian government of taxes worth over Rs 92 crore.

Ratan Banik, legal counsel for the CGST department, explained: “As per the 2017 India-Bhutan Trade Agreement, goods originating in Bhutan and destined for Bhutan can be transported through Indian territory. The accused exploited this provision by falsely declaring transactions as Bhutan-to-Bhutan trade. In reality, the Bhutanese cement was offloaded and stored in a warehouse at Ethelbari, Birpara, and later distributed and sold across various parts of India—without paying applicable taxes.”

Preliminary investigations reveal that Gopal Rathi is responsible for evading approximately Rs 65 crore in taxes over the last five years, while Sushil Agarwal is accused of evading close to Rs 27 crore.

After gathering substantial evidence, the CGST Commissionerate at Siliguri summoned the two businessmen and, upon verifying key documents, formally booked them under Section 132 of the CGST Act.

The court has directed the CGST officials to submit a detailed progress report on the investigation by July 10.