Bokajan: In a major development, Police in Karbi Anglong seized over 30,000 box of illegal Burmese origin cigarettes valued at Rs 6 lakh from a truck at Khatkhati exposing the spike in smuggling of contraband goods between Myanmar and India’s northeastern region.
Based on specific information, a police team from Khatkhati police station recovered the consignment from a container truck bearing registration number NL01AG 8250 from Khatkhati in Karbi Anglong district on Saturday morning.
“Today while performing routine naka checking duty on NH-39 near SBI Khatkhati branch, a container vehicle bearing registration number NL01AG-8250 which was coming from Manipur and heading towards Kolkata was intercepted,” said a senior police official.
During the search, the police team found one secret chamber on top of the vehicle. However, due to insufficient light, the vehicle was kept at the check post overnight and this morning while the vehicle was checked, we recovered 3,270 packets of Esse light cigarettes which were kept concealed inside the secret chamber,” he said.
“The consignment has been seized as per procedure in the presence of witnesses and also apprehended the driver and helper of the vehicle Minhaj Ahmed and Jahir Uddin,” he added.
The driver Minhaz Ahmed, who is from Doboka in Hojai district, is the owner of the vehicle. He brought the consignment from Churachandpur in Manipur and was supposed to deliver it to an individual in Kolkata.
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