The police seized around 17kg of cannabis on Friday night and arrested two persons, including a woman, from Rathbari More, a prominent crossing in Malda town.

The duo planned to smuggle the cannabis to Calcutta, police said.

On Friday midnight, Ahidi Bibi, from Katwa in East Burdwan district, and Chhottu Sheikh, from Bhaktinagar on the outskirts of Siliguri but in Jalpaiguri district, got down from a Calcutta-bound train in Malda Town station.

From there, they reached Rathbari More to board a bus headed for Calcutta.

“We acted on source information and intercepted the duo. They were carrying the narcotic in a trolley bag,” said Madan Mohan Roy, the inspector-in-charge of Englishbazar police station.

The cannabis, sources said, was smuggled from Manipur.

“Initially, they planned to go to Calcutta by train. However, the alertness of security personnel in stations and in the train changed their plan. They decided to take a bus to Calcutta from Malda. Police are trying to find out if they run a narcotic smuggling racket or are mere carriers,” said a source.

In another incident, three persons have been arrested from Bamangola area of the district for stealing inverters and batteries.

Abhishek Talukdar, the officer who is in charge of Bamangola police station, said Jitu Sarkar, a resident, had been running a gang to steal these items which were eventually smuggled to Bangladesh.

During the past few months, the police had received a number of complaints of such thefts in the district.

On Thursday night, police arrested Sarkar and two of his associates, said OC Talukdar.