12 kg Ganja stashed inside teddy bear for smuggling busted in Badarpur railway station; 2 arrested

Two smugglers were caught last night trying to smuggle a huge amount of ganja hidden inside teddy bears. The incident happened at the Badarpur railway station when the two individuals arrived at the station via Agartala-Badarpur train and were preparing to leave for someplace else by the Silchar-Kolkata train. At around 11 pm on Tuesday, the Police came and took them for questioning on suspicion. After initial interrogation and checking, 9 packets of cannabis or ‘ganja’ were found stashed inside the teddy bear. By weight, it was found that the seized cannabis weighed around 12 kg.

Last week, the Badarpur police had recovered 19 kg of cannabis from the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express coming from Agartala. However, it was not possible to arrest anyone during that bust. This time, the two smugglers were arrested and produced in court on Wednesday. The arrested smugglers were then sent to jail on the orders of the court.

According to the Railway Police, the arrested smugglers are Jaga Devi (39) and Dharmendra Varma (41). The railway police stated that the Silchar-bound train from Agartala stopped at the Badarpur station and many passengers got off from the train there. But some passengers were still sitting there. Some of them were waiting for the train from Silchar to Kolkata. However, seeing the activities and movements of the two passengers, the railway police became suspicious. These passengers were accompanied by a bag and a large teddy bear. Although the police officers did not express much suspicion during their interrogation, however, their suspicions increased when they noticed the teddy bear, as the doll weighed comparatively much more than usual. The railway police then took the male and female passengers to the police station on suspicion.

When the police started cutting the stitchings of the teddy bear at the police station, one by one all the packets containing cannabis came out. Later, the RPF and GRP police conducted a joint operation and searched their bags and recovered some more packets of cannabis. The nine packets recovered contained a total of about 12 kg of cannabis. Its market value is expected to be around 2.5 lakh rupees.

Last week, when cannabis was recovered on a Rajdhani Express train, many started questioning the safety and security of government-owned vehicles. This time it has been proved once again that the smugglers have made a route via train and Badarpur station is playing an important role in this. The government has been cracking down on illicit drugs all over the state and police in every district are arresting traffickers almost every day. However, along with illicit drugs, cannabis trafficking is also on the rise, raising concerns among many.