Aug. 9: Excise sleuths yesterday seized 310 grams of heroin (totalling approximately Rs 30 lakh) from a youth on the Brahmaputra Mail at Guwahati railway station.

Superintendent of excise, Kamrup, Bhabesh Sarma, said the arrested man has been identified as Bechu Choudhury, who is in his mid twenties.

“Choudhury, who is from Bihar, was arrested and the contraband seized during a routine check by assistant inspector of excise department, Bhupen Das, last evening,” Sarma said.

A case under Section 21 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act has been registered against the youth. He has been remanded in judicial custody today after being produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate.

Sarma said the samples of the heroin have been sent to the forensic laboratory.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the youth had boarded the train at Patna and was supposed to disembark at Tinsukia.

“It appears that Choudhury was only a courier and a big gang is involved in it. The matter is still under investigation,” the Sarma said.

The growing incidence of narcotics haul in the city in the past couple of years has become a cause of concern for the investigating agencies.

This is the second heroin haul in the city with four days. On Saturday, a joint raid by city police and the intelligence wing of the army seized nearly 500 grams of material suspected to be heroin and arrested three persons.

“These smugglers are getting caught because we have stepped up security. However, it is not always easy to detect drug runners, as they adopt innovative modus operandi. We had even recovered heroin from the locker of a bank in the city,” a CID official said.