Police in Cooch Behar cracked a case involving the robbery of betelnuts from a truck that occurred last month and arrested seven persons in this connection from here and neighbouring Alipurduar district.
According to police sources, Md Jamal, a resident of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, was carrying a consignment of betelnuts from Guwahati to Lucknow in his truck. On November 18, as he reached Gumani, a locality under Ghoksadanga police station of Cooch Behar around midnight, an SUV intercepted his vehicle and its occupants threatened him with sharp weapons to take away 30 betelnut sacks.
“He filed a complaint with us, alleging that some four-five goons came out of the SUV. Flaunting sharp weapons, they restrained him and unloaded around 30 sacks of betel nuts from the truck. The sacks were then unloaded on another vehicle. Then, the goons fled the spot,” said a police officer, quoting Jamal.
A police team, led by the subdivisional police officer of Mathabhanga, acted on Jamal's complaint and initiated a probe to nab four persons during the past few days.
The arrested are Rakesh Das of Birpara, Katla Hossain and Abdul Rahman of Falakata in Alipurduar district and Sahajahan Alam of Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district. All are in police custody now.
Based on their statements during interrogation, the police so far have recovered 28 sacks of betelnuts from various points.
The Cooch Behar police also got information from Birpara police in Alipurduar district that three others accused in the betelnut robbery, Mehtab Ali and Ajmer Alam of Falakata and Abubakar Siddiqui of Ghoksadanga in Cooch Behar, were arrested in Birpara in connection with another case.
“Our officers acted on source information, scanned CCTV footage and the call detail records of the accused. It transpired the trio were directly involved in the crime. Then, they conducted raids and made the arrests. Searches are on to nab some others who are still at large,” said Dyutiman Bhattacharya, SP, Cooch Behar.
The police have also seized the SUV used in the crime.
