Assam Railway Protection Force seizes Rs 16 crore worth contraband goods during January-May 2024

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has recovered contraband goods worth over Rs 1.22 crore from various locations of Northeast Frontier Railway (NF Railway) in a span of 15 days, from June 1 to 15, and apprehended 15 persons in connection with alleged involvement in smuggling goods.

The RPF of N F Railway is conducting regular drives to control the menace of touts. 

In recently conducted checks and drives, the RPF apprehended 5 touts and recovered railway tickets worth above Rs 90,000 from their possession.

Sabyasachi De, CPRO of Northeast Frontier Railway told reporters that the RPF of NF Railway recovered contraband and smuggled goods worth more than Rs 16.21 crore and apprehended 217 persons for involvement in the smuggling of contraband goods from January to May 2024.

"Moreover, 119 touts were also apprehended by RPF of NFR and recovered railway tickets worth more than Rs. 21.98 lakh during this period. All the apprehended persons were prosecuted under the relevant section of the Railways Act," Sabyasachi De told news agency ANI.

Furthermore, he said that the RPF & GRP of Guwahati conducted checking in train No. 15817 DN (Donyi Polo Express) at Guwahati railway station on June 13 and apprehended two persons and recovered 89 grams brown sugar worth approximately Rs 17.80 lakh from the train. 

The apprehended persons along with the recovered brown sugar were handed over to OC/GRP/Guwahati for necessary legal action. 

In another ncident on June 9, the RPF team of Kishanganj and the CIB team of New Jalpaiguri jointly conducted a raid and search operation at the PRS counter of Aluabari Road railway station. During the raid, the team recovered 21 PRS tickets, worth around Rs 55,223 and apprehended one tout in this connection.