A team of foresters of the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) seized illegal timber worth around Rs 1.5 lakh from a Bihar-bound bus early on Wednesday morning.

Four persons have in this connection.

According to sources, the bus was heading to Darbhanga in Bihar from Jorhat in Assam. Around 3.30am, the foresters intercepted the bus at Damanpur on NH31C.

“The foresters searched the bus and found logs of sawn timber hidden in a chamber in the rear of the bus under empty jute sacks. The seized timber were of two varieties — teak and siris. The driver and other staff could not furnish any document to validate transportation of the timber. They have been arrested and the bus has also been seized,” said a senior forester officer.

The arrested quartet have been identified as Ratnesh Kumar Rai, Rahul Kumar Maharaj and Shankar Ray, all residents of Bihar and Gurmit Singh who hail from Assam.

Later in the day, the quartet was produced at a local court and were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

In another incident, troops of the 164 battalion of the Border Security Force (BSF) posted at Gopinagar police outpost at the India-Bangladesh border in South Dinajpur district apprehended a Bangladeshi national for allegedly illegally trying to infiltrate into India on Tuesday.

Rabiul Islam Babu, hails from Naogaon district of the neighbouring country. “He was illegally trying to infiltrate into India,” BSF sources said.

Later, Babu was handed over to Balurghat police.