Assam Police seize cough syrup worth Rs 20 cr; two held

IANS Photo

IANS Photo

Guwahati, June 14 (IANS): The Assam Police have confiscated at least 95,000 bottles of cough syrup valued at around RS 20 crore from near the Assam-Tripura border, officials said on Wednesday.

Two people were arrested during the seizure, who have been identified as Bhabesh Kumar and Saminur Islam. According to the police, 95,360 bottles of cough syrup were confiscated from three vehicles on Tuesday night.

After receiving a tip-off, a team of Karimganj district police stopped three trucks at the Churaibari check-post near the Assam-Tripura border.

"We found 95,360 bottles of cough syrup in the trucks. We have arrested two people," a senior police officer said.

According to the officer, the total market value of the seized cough syrup will be around Rs 20 crore.

Partha Protim Das, Superintendent of Police of Karimganj district, told IANS, "Huge quantities of cough syrup were transported illegally without any papers. The trucks were coming from the Guwahati side and these Codeine-based cough syrups were supposedly being smuggled to Bangladesh."

Notably, on Monday, Assam Police had seized 780 bottles of codeine-phosphate syrup from near the Assam-Tripura border in the Churaibari area of Karimganj district, and arrested one person.