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Agartala, Nov 3 (IANS) The Tripura Police Crime Branch has arrested two more key kingpins involved in the seizure of drugs worth Rs 5.4 crore recovered from a goods train coming here from Delhi, officials said on Monday.
The anti-narcotics wing of the Tripura Police Crime Branch (TPCB) arrested Arun Kumar Ghosh (58) and Himanshu Jha alias Sonu (32) from Kolkata and Delhi respectively in connection with the recovery of 1,07,800 bottles of banned Escuf cough syrup from a goods train at Jiraniya railway station on October 17, a senior police officer said.
The officer said that both will be brought to Agartala on Monday and Tuesday to be produced in the court here.
Transit legal formalities are now in process, he said.
Among the three main drug smugglers arrested so far in the case of recovery of large quantity of drugs from a goods train, all are big businessmen of Tripura.
On October 30, Rajib Dasgupta (42) was arrested by TPCB and an intensive search was on to nab Ghosh and Jha. The officer further said that, acting on specific intelligence, a joint team of security forces searched the goods train at Jiraniya Railway Station and recovered banned Escuff cough syrup, which contains substances Codeine Phosphate and Triprolidine Hydrochloride, which are often abused as narcotics in India, neighboring Bangladesh and other countries.
The official said that the estimated value of the drugs seized in the illegal market is around Rs 5.4 crore.
The joint operation conducted by Tripura Police, Assam Rifles, Government Railway Police (GRP), Special Task Force (STF) and Customs Department is being described as one of the major successes in the ongoing fight against drug trafficking in the state.
The goods train carrying chicken fodder, rice and other goods reached Jiraniya railway station from Delhi on 16 October. The search operation began that night and continued till the morning of 17 October.
The illegal consignment was found unclaimed and hidden in two wagons along with other cargo. The seized goods have been handed over to the Customs Department for further investigation and legal action.
Police suspect that the banned Escuf cough syrup was to be smuggled into Bangladesh through clandestine routes.
The opposition CPI-M and Congress are organizing a statewide agitation against the transportation of drugs through goods trains from Delhi.
The youth wing of the opposition Congress on Sunday launched a mass letter campaign to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav to protest against the transportation of narcotics in the Delhi-Tripura goods train. Tripura Youth Congress is planning to send more than 10,000 such letters in the coming days.
Tripura Youth Congress president Neel Kamal Saha said the initiative was launched centrally from Agartala on Sunday and will soon be expanded to all blocks and localities across the state.
“We have started sending a mass letter to the Railway Minister from Agartala. Similar letters will be sent from every block and area across the state in the next few days,” Saha told the media.
In the letter, the Youth Congress alleged that some leaders of the ruling BJP, in collusion with unscrupulous businessmen and drug smugglers, are attempting to turn Tripura into a drug-trafficking corridor, even using railway services for illegal activities.
–IANS
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