Siliguri (West Bengal): West Bengal Police arrested six people in possession of brown sugar worth Rs.3 crore from Siliguri on Sunday. Special Operation Group (SOG) and the police of Matigara police station conducted a raid following a tip-off from secret sources and busted the racket. Police arrested the main accused, including 6 others.
The accused will be produced in the Siliguri Sub-Divisional Court on Tuesday. The accused persons are identified as Pushpa Mondal, Raju Sarkar, Dipankar Mondal, Vinod Prasad, Aarti, and Bharat Mondal. Bharat Mondal and Aarti are the residents of Malda's Kaliachak. They also have another house in Kharibari Block Batasi. The rest are residents of Matigara.
Official sources said, "a joint initiative of the SOG of the Siliguri Police Commissionerate and the police of the Matigara Police Station conducted the raid on a house in the Sadhan junction area of Atharokhai Gram Panchayat on Sunday. Allegedly, drugs were being traded from the house for quite some time. Police seized 1.6 kg of brown sugar in this raid. The market value of the drugs is estimated to be around Rs.3 crore."
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Police officials added, "Bharat and Aarti reached Pushpa's house on Main Road in Matigara with brown sugar from Kaliachak in Malda on Sunday. Pushpa has a huge network in the drug trade in Siliguri and the police were looking for her for a long time."
Anjali Roy, a neighbor said, "It has been two years since they have come to the village. No one knew that they were dealing drugs. The police should punish them severely." Her views were corroborated by another neighbor Geeta Barman.