Mithun Bhagat, a fertiliser trader in the Chopra block of North Dinajpur district, was arrested by officers of the Siliguri commissionerate of the CGST and central excise early on Thursday for allegedly evading GST to the tune of ₹5.5 crore and organising an attack on an inspection team of the department.

Sources said that Bhagat is into the business of trading fertilisers such as urea, DAP and NPK, which are subsidised and government-controlled essential commodities meant exclusively for agricultural use.

“The Centre provides substantial subsidies on fertilisers to support farmers and promote agricultural activities. Any diversion or misuse of subsidised fertilisers results in GST evasion and causes serious financial loss to the government through misappropriation of subsidy funds,” said a source.

An official of the commissionerate said that based on specific inputs hinting at possible diversion and misuse of subsidized fertilisers, an inspection was conducted on December 12, 2025, at Bhagat's main place of business.

“During inspection, incriminating documents, including handwritten notebooks, registers, chits and invoices without GST details of his firm, as well as a related firm, were found,” said the official.

However, a group of unidentified and masked criminals forcibly entered the premises, assaulted and manhandled the inspecting officers and forcibly removed all incriminating documents and materials collected during the inspection, the official said.

On the same day, a complaint was lodged with the Chopra police on the incident.

The CGST authorities continued their investigation. In due course, Bhagat failed to produce mandatory statutory records like purchase and sale ledgers, bank statements, POS sale data and other relevant documents.

“The e-way bills were analysed, which revealed that invoices and such bills were issued without actual movement of goods, indicating the diversion of subsidised fertilisers. It was also found that fertilisers were sold to unauthorised entities and inter-state sales were carried out without permission,” said the official.

“Based on the evidence collected so far, the quantum of GST evasion has been provisionally quantified at ₹5.59 crore, involving issuance of invoices without supply of goods, diversion of subsidised fertilisers and suppression of actual transactions,” he said.

Charges under the CGST Act and BNS were brought against the arrested Bhagat.

Later in the day, Bhagat was produced at a local court in Siliguri, which ordered judicial custody for him till January 20.