The crime branch of district police raided Dhaluabari under Kotwali police station on Saturday on a tip-off and seized 5,000 bottles of cough syrup.

Four persons, including three from Uttar Pradesh, were arrested.

Kumar Sunny Raj, the additional superintendent of police of Cooch Behar, said the team intercepted a container truck at Dhaluabari. As they searched it, syrup bottles were found packed in cartons.

“The quartet have been booked under the NDPS Act,” said the police officer.

Those arrested are Shame Ala, Aanas Pasha and Asif, all from Uttar Pradesh, and Najmul Haque of Sahebganj, an area close to the India-Bangladesh border in Dinhata subdivision of Cooch Behar.

Cough syrup has a huge demand among drug abusers in Bangladesh. The BSF, police and other law enforcing agencies regularly seize cough syrup from north Bengal.

“We suspect that all four of them are associated with a smuggling racket. It seems the trio from UP had brought the consignment here and with the help of Haque they had plans to smuggle it to Bangladesh,” said a police source.

BSF bike rally

A motorcycle rally organised by the Border Security Force (BSF) to commemorate the 75 years of India’s independence, which was flagged off from Shillong on September 1, reached the BSF campus on Radhabari on the outskirts of Siliguri on Saturday.

Ajai Singh, the inspector general of BSF’s north Bengal frontier, on Sunday flagged off the rally from Radhabari for its onward journey.

The team participating in the rally comprises 30 BSF personnel comprising an equal number of men and women.

They will move through seven states and reach Delhi on September 16.