Tripura Police and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) seized 2,998 bottles of banned Eskuf cough syrup from a parcel van of the Garib Rath Express at Agartala Railway Station, busting a suspected inter-state drug trafficking attempt. One person was arrested in connection with the seizure.
The arrested accused has been identified as Rakesh Hossain (44), a resident of Rajnagar under West Agartala Police Station. He was detained while attempting to collect the consignment from the railway station, police said.
Acting on specific intelligence inputs, personnel of the Government Railway Police (GRP) conducted a search of the parcel wagon attached to the Garib Rath Express on Tuesday evening. During the search, officers recovered thousands of bottles of Escuf cough syrup (100 ml each), a banned substance often misused as a narcotic.
Senior police officials rushed to the spot following the recovery. A preliminary investigation revealed that the seized consignment was consigned to SS Courier Service, located at Grandiose Chowmohani, Agartala, where the arrested accused was employed.
Police sources said the consignment originated from Delhi and was transported to Tripura via the Garib Rath Express. A search operation is underway to arrest the owner of SS Courier Service, Ranjan Datta Chowdhury, to ascertain the larger network involved in the racket.
The seizure was made during a joint operation carried out by the Government Railway Police (GRP), West Tripura District Police, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Customs Department, and the Special Task Force (STF). The raid began around 5:00 pm and continued till late evening.
Officials confirmed that the market value of the seized contraband is estimated to be worth several crores of rupees. Further investigation is in progress.
