Agartala, Aug 22 (Agency) Tripura Police on Monday arrested three persons and seized a huge cache of brown sugar worth Rs 10 crore at Churaibari, the entry point of Tripura, when they were entering the state from Assam by car, Superintendent of Police North Tripura, Bhanupada Chakraborty, said on Tuesday. Based on secret input regarding the movement of drug consignments, police set up 16 checkpoints on the National Highway on August 19, and on Monday, three people entered Tripura in a Tata Sumo registered with Assam carrying a huge consignment of brown sugar, but they tried to evade police checking and failed. “During the search of the vehicle, we seized 1.3 kg of brown sugar, which was kept inside a hidden chamber in the vehicle. We have arrested three persons identified as Abdul Ali (28), Suman Krishna Das (21), and Prasenjit Das (23) of Boxanagar under Sonamura Sub-division of Tripura’s Sepahijala district”, he said.
During interrogation, it was revealed that the heroin was smuggled from Myanmar, and through Mizoram via south Assam, the consignment was brought to Tripura, intending to smuggle it to Bangladesh. And the accused have been engaged in interstate drug-paddling activities for a long time. A local court sent them to three days police remand on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in a separate operation, Railway Police apprehended five women who hail from Bihar at Jirania railway station in West Tripura and recovered about 24.5 kg of cannabis from their possession. The officer in charge of the Agartala GR police station said that based on suspicions of illicit activity, a group of five women, accompanied by a local individual, and four infants were spotted at the Jirania station on Sunday evening. Senior officials promptly arrived at the scene and conducted an interrogation. Subsequently, a search of their belongings led to the discovery of 24.5 kilogrammes of cannabis and the recovery of six mobile phones and a sum of cash from them. They were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.