Woman arrested with pistol, huge quantities of Yaba tablets from North Tripura; probe underway

Tripura Police on Friday arrested a 25-year-old woman with a pistol and drugs worth Rs 20 lakh, officials said.

 North Tripura District's Superintendent of Police Avinash Rai said that acting on information, a police team led by Additional Superintendent of Police Jeremiah Darlong conducted a raid at the residence of one Helal Miah in the Bhagyapur area under Dharmanagar police station and arrested Mamoni Begum.

A pistol, a few live cartridges and 7,800 highly addictive methamphetamine tablets, also known as Yaba tablets, valued at approximately Rs 20 lakh, were recovered from her possession.

The district police chief confirmed that a case has been registered under the Arms Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, and that a detailed investigation is currently underway.

Officials suspect the involvement of a larger drug trafficking network and said efforts are on to uncover the full extent of the operation.

“Police officials are interrogating the woman to know where she collected the arms and for what purpose. Further details would be known after completion of the interrogation and ongoing probe,” Rai said.

Friday’s arms recovery occurred three weeks after the recovery of eight pistols and 16 empty magazines from an express train in Agartala railway station on May 8.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF), in a joint operation on May 8, recovered eight pistols and 16 empty magazines from the Tripura Sundari Express Train after the train reached the Agartala railway station from Punjab's Firozpur.

"Eight pistols and 16 empty magazines were recovered from the two unclaimed bags. We have yet to identify the owner or carrier of these bags,” a GRP official said, adding that there is no mark or place of manufacture of the pistols and magazines.  All eight pistols are similar to point 9mm pistols.