BJP leader arrested with banned cough syrup in Cooch Behar’s Dinhata

Tension gripped the Sahebganj police station area in Dinhata of Cooch Behar on Friday after police seized a large quantity of banned cough syrup and arrested a local BJP leader on charges of trafficking.

According to police sources, 79 bottles of the banned cough syrup ‘Phensedyl’ were recovered from Sahebganj on Thursday night.

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One person, identified as Sukumar Barman, was arrested in connection with the seizure. He is a resident of Shilduar in Sitai.

Local sources claimed that the arrested individual is the president of BJP’s No. 1 Mandal committee in the Sitai Assembly constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that he had been falsely implicated ahead of the Assembly elections.

However the family members claimed that he has been missing since Thursday and alleged police conspiracy in the whole issue.

“Around 2.30 p.m, police picked him up from the area. We searched for him at Sitai police station but could not find him and later filed a missing diary,” one of his relative said.

“We came to know that Sahebganj police had arrested him on charges of attempting to smuggle banned cough syrup,” the relative added.

The incident triggered a political war of words in Cooch Behar. BJP district president Abhijit Barman alleged that Sukumar Barman was arrested with ulterior motives. “When we contacted the police administration, they initially denied the arrest,” he said.

He further accused leaders of the Trinamul Congress of using the police to frame BJP leaders and workers in false drug trafficking cases ahead of the elections to prevent them from securing bail.

Countering the allegations, Trinamul MP Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia said: “If anyone is involved in drug trafficking, whether from Trinamul or BJP, the law will take its own course. We do not have the vile mentality of using the police to falsely implicate opposition leaders.”

Police, however, maintained that during interrogation the accused admitted to possessing the banned cough syrup, and the entire process was videographed.

A case has been registered under the NDPS Act, and further investigation is underway.