A group of tribal people walked up to the office of the South Dinajpur SP in Balurghat on Thursday to inform him that the BSF personnel patrolling along the India-Bangladesh border of the district had wrongly apprehended a tribal youth in a smuggling case.

Sources said that on Tuesday, the BSF intercepted Suben Pahan, a 24-year-old youth from the Chingishpur area near the border. He was trying to smuggle cough syrup bottles to Bangladesh, claimed the BSF, and furnished around 480 bottles of cough syrup, which they said had been seized from him.

The BSF handed over Suben to Balurghat police on the same day along with the seized items. On Wednesday, the police produced him in court, which ordered him in judicial custody for 14 days.

Krishna Pahan, Suben’s father, said: “He is the sole earning member of the family. He drives tractors. He has been falsely implicated in the smuggling case by the BSF. That is why we met the SP and requested him to expedite the release of my son.”

“If our demand is not met, we will launch a movement on the issue. Those who were involved in falsely framing him in the case should face legal consequences,” the father added.

Chinmay Kumar Mittal, the SP, said they were looking into the issue.

BSF authorities, on the other hand, have declined comment.