Archive · 6 Aug 2026
Police, BSF step up India-Bangladesh border vigil after seizures
Police officers in a town called Malda, which sits next to the country of Bangladesh, found very valuable things hidden in a house and a storage shed.
They found a huge amount of money and a small bar of gold, along with thousands of bottles of a special medicine that is not allowed.
People sometimes try to sneak medicines like that across the border to sell them, which is against the law.
The police arrested three people because they think these people were part of the plan to sneak the medicine.
After this discovery, the police are watching the border area much more carefully.
They are also asking people who own houses to check carefully who they rent their homes to.
The police believe bad people may try to hide by renting houses near the border.
Police teams are working together to find out more about the people involved.
The police also gave back 600 phones that had been lost or stolen to their owners.
Malda police and the Border Security Force (BSF) have intensified surveillance across the India-Bangladesh border following seizures of cash, gold and banned cough syrup.
Searches in Mangalbari under Malda police station yielded ₹2.42 crore and a 20-gram gold bar from a flat, and around 9,000 bottles of banned cough syrup from a warehouse about 1.5km away.
The cough syrup's estimated black-market value is around ₹20 lakh, and investigators suspect the cash represents proceeds of an organised cough syrup smuggling racket.
South Dinajpur police arrested three Malda residents, Pintu Sarkar, Gopal Chaki and Sushanta Haldar, who were tenants of a flat owned by local Trinamool Congress leader Dilip Saha.
Officials are urging landlords to verify tenants' backgrounds, and Malda police also returned 600 stolen or lost cell phones to their owners on Wednesday.
- Who
- Malda police, the Border Security Force (BSF) and South Dinajpur police, along with arrested suspects Pintu Sarkar, Gopal Chaki and Sushanta Haldar.
- What
- Recovery of ₹2.42 crore in cash, a 20-gram gold bar and about 9,000 bottles of banned cough syrup, followed by intensified border surveillance and anti-smuggling checks.
- When
- The searches took place from Sunday night to Monday morning, and police announced the heightened vigil on Wednesday.
- Where
- Mangalbari area of Malda district, near the India-Bangladesh border.
- Why
- The cash and goods are suspected to be linked to an organised cough syrup smuggling racket operating along the Bangladesh border.
- Cash seized
- ₹2.42 crore
- Gold bar seized
- 20 grams
- Banned cough syrup bottles
- About 9,000
- Estimated black-market value of syrup
- Around ₹20 lakh
- Arrests
- 3 people (Pintu Sarkar, Gopal Chaki, Sushanta Haldar)
- Warehouse distance from flat
- About 1.5 km
- Stolen/lost phones returned
- 600
- Location
- Mangalbari, Malda district, near the India-Bangladesh border