A truck carrying over 4,000 kg of banned firecrackers was intercepted at the Lake Town intersection on VIP Road on Monday afternoon. The consignment was headed for Guwahati, police said.
Three men have been arrested in this connection.
A joint team from the Bidhannagar Commissionerate’s detective department and the Lake Town police station intercepted the truck, a senior officer of the commissionerate said.
The detective department of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate had received information that a huge consignment of the banned firecrackers would be transported to Guwahati ahead of Diwali. A team managed to learn about the date of the transportation and the registration number of the truck.
“We had received a tip-off that a large quantity of banned firecrackers would be transported to Guwahati in Assam. We acted accordingly and a police team comprising uniformed as well as plainclothes personnel had been deployed at the Lake Town crossing to intercept the truck,” said the officer.
The cops arrested Ibrahim Khalil, 39, the driver of the truck, Dildar Hussain, 22, the helper. Both are from Assam. Nuran Molla, a resident of Champagati in Baruipur, has also been arrested. He too was travelling in the truck.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said with regular checks being carried out in the city, manufacturers of illegal crackers are now trying to sell them in other states.
“Because of intensified monitoring and increased awareness levels among residents about the ill effects of banned crackers the demand from them in the city has
subsided to some extent over the years. This is the reason why many sellers are trying
to send the crackers outside the state and sell them at a profit,” a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate’s detective department said.
Another officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said that they are trying to find out the source of the crackers.
“The truck was loaded up with the banned crackers in Champahati. We will need to question all the men to find out the exact source of the crakers. It is likely that they originated from an illegal factory as the sheer quantity of the crackers is huge,” said the officer.
The cops are trying to track down the factory as well as anybody else involved in this.
An officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate said they have started campaigns asking people only to use green fireworks during Kali Puja and Diwali.
More than 2,000 police personnel will be on the roads of Salt Lake and adjoining areas this year to not only ensure safe and peaceful celebrations but also to stop anyone from using banned firecrackers.
The police have also started mapping out areas from where most complaints had been recorded in the earlier years such as Lake Town, the airport area, Baguiati and some pockets of Rajarhat.
Special patrol teams will be sent to these areas. Police pickets will be placed around big pandals like those in BF-CF Block, Rajarhat and Sukantanagar.