The special task force (STF) of Bengal police arrested five persons, including two Trinamool Congress leaders, in Cooch Behar on Monday night and purportedly seized yaba tablets from them.

The arrests have prompted the district Trinamool leadership to suspend the two.

Sources said an STF team raided Gunjabari, an area near the bus stand in Cooch Behar town, and caught Mafuzar Rahaman, Sirajul Haque, Khajidul Haque, Ershad Hossain and Tota Bibi.

All of them are from Gitaldaha in the Dinhata subdivision of the district.

Mafuzar is the chairman of the Gitaldaha I panchayat-level committee of the TMC, while his wife is the deputy chief of the rural body.

Sirajul is a TMC member of the panchayat.

The STF team searched the five and found 1.5kg of yaba tablets on them. Commonly known as yaba, the tablets are a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine
and have a huge demand among drug abusers in Bangladesh.

“They brought the tablets from Nagaland to Cooch Behar and wanted to leave for Dinhata. They had plans to smuggle those into Bangladesh,” said a source.

On Tuesday, the five were produced in a court, which remanded them in police custody for six days.

The two leaders’ arrests have come as an embarrassment for the Trinamool district leadership.

The TMC suspended the two leaders following the arrests.

“They have been arrested on serious charges. That is why it has been decided to expel them for six years,” said Avijit De Bhowmik, the Cooch Behar district Trinamool president.

Narcotics seized

Acting on a tip off, a team of Pundibari police in Cooch Behar seized cough syrup and brown sugar (a derivative of heroin) on Monday and arrested three persons, including a woman.

Those arrested are Indranil Barman, Mithu Bin and Neha Bin, all of whom are from Cooch Behar.

Sources said they were moving on a two-wheeler with a bag when the police intercepted them. As the bag was searched, 21 bottles of cough syrup and 105.4 grams of brown sugar were found in it.

During interrogation, the trio confessed that they had brought the items from Malda.

Police have registered a case under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act. Investigations have started.