Six held for smuggling drugs

KOLKATA: Six men including two Kolkata Police constables were nabbed for alleged drug smuggling.

The involvement of the police personnel came to light early on Sunday morning after they were arrested.

Acting on a tip off, a Special Task Force (STF) team of Kolkata Police, intercepted three men near the Patton Tank on Strand Road on Friday. The accused identified as Sambit Ray of Odisha, Fani Biswas and Raju Biswas of Bangaon along with their belongings were thoroughly searched.

Police had found a few packets of heroin, weighing about 1.132 kg, inside their bags. Later, the trio was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court and was remanded in police custody for two days.

While the accused were grilled, they confessed that the heroin was procured from three other men from Bongaon. Immediately, a team was sent to addresses in Bongaon as told by the arrested persons but the police personnel found that the suspects had fled after getting the news of their associates' arrest.

Though the team returned on Friday, again on Saturday evening, the cops came to know that they were somewhere in Gaighata. In the evening, a massive search operation was started at several places in Gaighata and finally on Sunday morning around 4:20 am, cops spotted them inside a hut within a poultry.

After arresting the trio, cops were surprised to find out that among them two men identified as Palash Biswas and Subrata Biswas are constables of Kolkata Armed Police, fifth battalion. The other accused identified as Prashanta Sikdar alias Pocha is a notorious dealer of heroin.

Sources informed that despite being Constables, Palash and Subrata used to live luxurious lives and also made several assets in Bongaon. STF officials are investigating the case to find out whether any other police personnel are involved in the racket or not.

Meanwhile in a separate case, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel nabbed three persons from the Howrah railway station and seized 40 kg ganja worth Rs 2.40 lakh on Saturday.

The accused had arrived Howrah on Bengaluru-Howrah special train and were intercepted while they were deboarding. The accused were later handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Howrah.