MBA student arrested with cannabis at Agartala airport

A few students of Tripura studying in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune were engaged in illegal trading of cannabis, according to the accused's statement.
Image for representational purpose only
Image for representational purpose only

AGARTALA: The Tripura Police on Monday traced a link to a cannabis smuggling racket operating in Karnataka, following the arrest of a 27-year-old MBA student in Bangalore, who was travelling back to the city with over 30 kg of dry cannabis leaves.

Menaka Debbarma, resident of Tairatbari hamlet of Mohanpur in West Tripura was arrested from Maharaja Bir Bikram airport and cannabis leaves were seized from her possession.

Overnight interrogation of Menaka revealed the existence of the drug racket operating in Bangalore.

According to her statement, a few students of Tripura studying in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune were engaged in transporting and illegal trading of cannabis, used in pharmaceutical industries and also smuggled to the Middle East as a psychotropic drug.

Menaka told the police that one of her cousins, staying in Bangalore, directed her to carry the cannabis leaves from the village.

She flew down from Bangalore on the previous night to Kolkata and took an early morning flight to Agartala.

Without wasting any time, she reached the village and collected the consignment and was travelling back to Bangalore in the afternoon flight.

According to the airlines officials, Menaka did not provide her bags in luggage and carried two bags as hand baggage.

When she obtained the boarding pass, there was only a small handbag with her and she had kept the main bag containing the cannabis at a distant place.

As a result, security personnel could not trace the contraband hidden in her bag during the security check and baggage scanning.

However, when she boarded the plane with two bags of unusual size, airlines staff grew suspicious of her.

When they searched her bags, they found the cannabis she was trying to smuggle to Bangalore.

Immediately, she was deplaned and CISF took her into custody and handed over to the police, sources added.

This is for the first time, cannabis has been recovered from an airline passenger, though gold bars, arms and cash have been seized earlier from the airport.

Cannabis has been seized while being smuggled to other states via train, post and courier.

The crackdown on persons involved in manufacturing, illegal trading and smuggling of drugs has been intensified after the BJP-IPFT government undertook multiple steps in the last 6 months.

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The New Indian Express
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