2 arrested in Helakandi, Assam
Silchar: Imported cigarettes worth more than Rs 1 million were seized from a vehicle and two persons were arrested from Lalapur under Lala police station in Hailakandi district on Tuesday morning.
Sources said that cigarettes were seized during a police check on Lalapur Bypass at around 3.30 am on Tuesday. A team stopped a vehicle (MZ-01 V-2018), searched it and found 30 cartons of imported cigarettes (18 cartons of Korean cigarettes and 12 cartons of American cigarettes) hidden under the back seat of the vehicle. The two men in the car could not produce any valid documents regarding the cigarettes. The men have been identified as Ariana Manik , 29, and Llarnoma Kepang, 34, police sources said.
Cigarettes with a market value of more than Rs 10 lakh were confiscated and the vehicle was seized by the police. During the interrogation, both admitted that they had smuggled cigarettes in the same way in the past. He told police that the present consignment was collected from a man from Azol in Mizoram and they were taking it to Shillong in Meghalaya. The place (Lalapur Bypass) from where the cigarettes were seized and the two persons who were caught is about 17 km away from Hailakandi city.
A Lala police station official told reporters that a preliminary investigation revealed that cigarettes were being smuggled into Shillong via National Highway-6 (formerly known as National Highway-154). ۔ The case is under further investigation.