The Jalpaiguri division of the state excise department, acting on a tip-off, seized an illegal consignment of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) in Siliguri on Tuesday.

Ankit Kumar Mahato, Anil Paswan, Ram Babu, and Arvind Paswan, all residents of Samastipur district in Bihar, have been arrested in this connection.

Sujit Das, the special commissioner (north) of the state excise department, said their team intercepted a car and a pick-up van near the Mahananda bridge in the Champasari area.

“As they searched the car and the pick-up van, 648 litres of IMFL, packed in 72 cartons, were recovered. The cartons were concealed under sacks of vegetables. We have also seized the vehicles,” said Das.

Officials of the department said they suspect that the liquor — whisky made in Sikkim — was supposed to be smuggled to Bihar. A source said the cost of the seized IMFL and the vehicles is around ₹32 lakhs.

Cannabis haul

The Government Railway Police (GRP) seized 27.243kg of cannabis, worth around ₹11 lakh, from the Malda Town station on Monday evening.

A source in the GRP said Jhantu Sarkar, from Sagarpara in Murshidabad and Govind Upadhyay, from the Badarpur area of Delhi, have been arrested in this connection.“They were carrying two trolleys. We acted on the source information and intercepted them,” said Prashant Rai, the inspector-in-charge of the Malda Town GRP.