Archive · 19 Aug 2026
Alipurduar Police Arrest Four After Seizing 19 Buffaloes
Police in Alipurduar stopped two vehicles suspected of carrying smuggled buffaloes.
They found nine buffaloes in the first vehicle and 10 in the second.
Four people in the vehicles were arrested.
The vehicles were stopped on NH31C, a road police are watching closely.
The first stop happened on Monday evening, and the second happened Tuesday morning.
In a separate case in Malda, police found about 2kg of brown sugar.
Brown sugar is a drug made from heroin.
Three people, including a woman from Bihar, were arrested in that case.
Police in Alipurduar recovered 19 buffaloes and arrested four people in two operations on NH31C.
The first operation seized nine buffaloes from a van heading toward Assam on Monday evening.
Rafiqul Islam and Ambar Ali, both from Nalbari in Assam, were arrested in the first operation.
A second interception on Tuesday morning recovered 10 buffaloes and led to the arrests of Bhabesh Sahani and Md Faizuddin.
Separately, Malda police arrested three people and seized about 2kg of brown sugar valued at approximately ₹1 crore.
- Who
- Alipurduar police arrested Rafiqul Islam, Ambar Ali, Bhabesh Sahani and Md Faizuddin; Malda police separately arrested Dheeraj Devi, Maruf Sheikh and Ibrahim Sheikh.
- What
- Police seized 19 buffaloes in Alipurduar and approximately 2kg of brown sugar in Malda.
- When
- The buffalo seizures occurred on Monday evening and Tuesday morning; the Malda narcotics operation took place Monday night.
- Where
- The buffaloes were seized on NH31C in Alipurduar district, while the narcotics were seized near Narayanpur-Jhanjra More bypass in Malda.
- Why
- Police were acting on a tip-off and increased surveillance because NH31C was suspected of being used as a cattle-smuggling route; the Malda arrests followed a narcotics seizure.
- Buffaloes seized
- 19
- Alipurduar arrests
- Four
- Location of buffalo operations
- NH31C, Alipurduar district
- Narcotics seized
- Approximately 2kg of brown sugar
- Estimated narcotics value
- Around ₹1 crore
- Malda arrests
- Three
- First buffalo seizure
- Nine buffaloes from a van heading toward Assam
- Second buffalo seizure
- 10 buffaloes from another pick-up van