Rs 1.5cr cough syrup seized in Sribhumi; 2 held

Silchar: Police have seized banned cough syrup valued around Rs 1.5 crore from a watermelon-laden truck at the Churaibari check gate in Sribhumi district and arrested two persons, officials said on Thursday.Acting on a tip-off that a vehicle carrying contraband was heading towards Tripura from Guwahati, police intercepted the truck at the Churaibari police check gate near the Assam–Tripura border on Wednesday evening. The check gate in-charge, Niranjan Das, along with his team, conducted a thorough search of the vehicle.During the search, police recovered 95 cartons containing 14,250 bottles of a codeine-based cough syrup, concealed among watermelons loaded on the truck, sources said.The driver and co-driver were arrested on the spot. They have been identified as Muslem Mia (37), a resident of Mohanbhog in Sipahijala district of Tripura, and Najrul Islam (23) from Barpeta district in Assam.Police estimated the value of the seized contraband at approximately Rs 1.5 crore.Patharkandi co-district superintendent of police Anirban Sharma, who is supervising the investigation, said a case has been registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The accused were produced before the district chief judicial magistrate’s court on Thursday and remanded to judicial custody.He added that a legal notice would be issued to the owner of the truck as part of the ongoing investigation.