The district enforcement branch (DEB) of Cooch Behar police seized an illegal consignment of rice from a truck in Boxirhat on Wednesday night.

Police are now in search of the person who stored the rice in his godown and the truck driver. Both have managed to flee.

Dyutiman Bhattacharya, the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar, said that around 10.15pm on Wednesday, a team from DEB reached Deshbandhupara, which is under Boxirhat police station and found a truck loaded with rice sacks.

“Altogether, 245 sacks, each containing 50 kilos of rice (which adds up to 122.5 quintals of the grain) were seized from the truck,” he said.

During the preliminary investigation, the police learned that Sudhanshu Dey, a resident of Deshbandhupara, along with some others, had been jointly running an illegal rice business.

“We approached his family members but they couldn’t show any valid documents to prove that they had legally stored the rice. It is evident that the rice was stolen and stored,” said a police officer.

Sources in DEB said they suspect that the rice was illegally brought from ration shops and was stored in the godown.

“It seems that they had plans to smuggle the rice to the neighbouring state of Assam. We have also seized the truck. Investigations are on,” the police officer added.

Truck on fire

A dump truck moving towards Changrabandha in Cooch Behar from Odlabari in Jalpaiguri suddenly burst into flames at Kranti block of Jalpaiguri on Thursday morning.

Local residents helped the driver and cleaner to come out of the burning truck. Soon, a team from Kranti police station reached the spot. Also, two fire tenders from Malbazar reached there and doused the blaze.

The firemen suspect that an electrical short circuit led to the blaze.

The police are conducting a probe.