From Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : A local court in Manipur today remanded three youths to police custody till Friday on charges of attempting to smuggle covid-19 vaccineand other drugs in neighbouring Myanmar. Police said this on Tuesday. Mohammad Feroz Khan (30), Imran Khan (22) and Shubham Kumar Anand (23) were arrested on Sunday for trying to smuggle a large quantity of Covicshield vaccine, Remdesivir and other drugs in a vehicle, a police official in Imphal said.
Feroz e Imran hails from Manipur while Shubham hails from Katihar district of Bihar and is currently living in Imphal. Police led by N. Jadumani Singh, officer-in-charge of Singjamei police station, were checking passersby and vehicles in Kanchipur area near Hejingang Supermarket along NH-2 when the three youths were caught with drugs and their vehicles and banned belongings have been seized, he said.The detainees have confessed that the drugs were to be transported to Myanmar via the Moreh border. Officials said the youths are being questioned to ascertain whether the seized drugs, vaccines and more people were involved in the racket. Highly addictive stimulants Mostly methamphetamine, foreign-origin cigarettes, arms and ammunition and many other banned substances are often smuggled from Myanmar, which shares a 1,643 km fenced border with four north-eastern states – Mizoram (510 km), Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur. (398 km) and Nagaland (215 km).
