Anti-drugs operations: Police-drug peddlers nexus alleged

A Correspondent

Agartala, July 6: Mystery shrouded over an injured youth and three suspected kidnappers as preliminary investigation indicated an apparent narcotics connection with the whole episode.

The youth Jutan Khan (24) was detained by local people when he was found running through the roads in Teliamura crying for help as three other were chasing him. Local people got suspicious and detained him and three chasing youth also and handed them over to the police.

Later interrogation revealed that all of them were members of a Ganja smuggling gang and smuggle huge quantity of Ganja from Bishalghar and Sonamura area to different destinations of the country.

Jhutan, a resident of Jogendra Nagar area in Agartala, left the smuggling gang and started leading a normal life.

However, recently a vehicle of the gang carrying smuggled goods was intercepted by police. The gang members suspected that Jhutan has informed the police and on Thursday they kidnapped and tortured him. Later they were taking him to an isolated place and on the way they stopped at Teliamura for lunch when Jhutan tried to flee.

Police said they have detained Jhutan and three others Jagadish Debnath, Pritam Roy and Tapash Das.

‘There is reason to suspect that they are members of a smuggling gang and the matter is being investigated.’

This was the first incident of intra-gang clash came to fore since the State police launched a massive drive against all kinds of narcotic drugs specially the Cannabis ( Ganja) being smuggled from Tripura to various places. Police seized few thousands of Cannabis since the operation was launched about two months back.

The other major narcotic item that passes through Tripura is Phensedyl. Coming from different parts of the country this cough syrup with high alcohol content is mostly smuggled into Bangladesh which is a dry country and this cough syrup is popular as an alternative to wine.

The most interesting revelation of the operation is the unearthing of an unholy nexus between the Cannabis smugglers and the police. The authority has already taken action against at least six police officials. The last police officer in the row is the Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Teliamura Tapash Deb.

The five other police officers suspended on similar allegation includes two sub-inspectors.

The BJP-IPFT coalition government after coming into power in April last has declared zero tolerance policy on illegal drug peddling and launched the massive operation which is still going on. Chief Minister Biplab Deb recently in an interview said the operation will go on till the State does not get relieved of this menace.