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Feb. 16: Railway Protection Force personnel stumbled upon a consignment of Phensedyl cough syrup valued at Rs 2.25 lakh from Guwahati railway station today.
According to an official source, 3,000 bottles of Phensedyl were found inside 15 cartons lying on platform number two at the railway station.
“A team of RPF personnel which was on patrol duty noticed the cartons lying unclaimed on the platform for quite some time and grew suspicious,” he said.
“When they made enquiries with people present on the platform, nobody came forward to claim the cartons, triggering suspicion that they may contain illegal consignment,” the source said.
Th RPF suspects that someone may have brought the Phensedyl bottles by train and had plans to take them to Tripura by road.
Though the force is yet to ascertain from where and by which train the consignment arrived in Guwahati, they suspect that it was brought from somewhere in north India.
“We have strong reasons to believe that from Tripura it would have been smuggled to Bangladesh, where Phensedyl is extremely popular since liquor consumption is banned there,” he said.
Phensedyl, which contains a high dose of codeine, is abused by addicts for a high.
“Some unscrupulous traders of Tripura are smuggling the cough syrup across the border, where they earn a huge amount of money. While one 100ml bottle of Phensedyl would cost around Rs 75 in India, it would be sold for something between Rs 600 and Rs 700 in Bangladesh,” he said.
The source said the RPF has handed over this case to the customs department for further investigation.
“The anti-smuggling unit of customs, Guwahati division, has registered a case under relevant provisions of the Customs Act in this connection and is investigating the matter,” he said.
He said the customs sleuths have also sought the help of railway authorities to find out on which train and where the Phensedyl consignment was loaded.
Law enforcement agencies often detain vehicles and seize thousands of bottles of Phensedyl en route to Tripura.
On February 9, revenue intelligence officials intercepted a truck loaded with 450 cartons of Phensedyl bottles in Cachar district, proceeding towards Agartala to be smuggled out to Bangladesh.
“But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The network is very deep-rooted and widespread. It would need a Herculean effort to curb Phensedyl smuggling,” he added.
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