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Drugs seized at Agartala Airport

By Correspondent - 15 Sep 2010 12:00 AM GMT

AGARTALA, Feb 26 � Believe it or not, bottles of Phensydril are being smuggled from Delhi to Agartala Airport by State-owned airline company � Indigo. The smuggling, which has been taking place over the years, came to light Thursday after recovery of 4,000 bottles of the banned cough syrup at the Airport.

Following a tip-off, the OC of Airport police station Siddhartha Sankar Kar along with staff on Tuesday rushed to the Airport around 2 pm. As the Agartala-bound Indigo flight touched down around 2.15 pm, the police intensified vigil at the Cargo Base. Around 2.30 pm, they found eight trunks were lying at the Cargo Base.

On suspicion, the police wanted to know what were inside the eight trunks but did not get any satisfactory answer from the authority concerned. Later, the trunks were opened and eighty cartons of Phensydril were found inside. However, no arrest was made because there was no claimant of the cartons.

Police seized the drug worth Rs 4 lakh and handed it over to Customs to take necessary steps, said a police officer of Airport police station.

The big question now is how the consignment of the banned cough syrup, treated as narcotics got the security clearance from the Delhi Airport where passengers as well as cargo have to go through a series of security checks. It is suspected that there might be some elements at Delhi Airport, who had played a key role in getting the consignment passed.

�This is a major concern for us as the consignment could have been weapons instead of drug�, said a police officer hinting at the security lapses in the Agartala Airport.

It has been alleged that smugglers have been using the flight to bring Phensydril from Delhi to Agartala for sending across the border for a long time. However, this is for the first time that police have managed to detect it.