From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai :: Police in Assam’s Darrang district seized a big illegal consignment of Burmese supari ( dry betel nuts from Myanmar ) from various locations of Kharupetia town for illegal storage. A police team from Kharupetia Police Station led by DSP (Head Quarters) , Darrang, Mamoni Hazarika on May 28 last raided the godowns and residential campuses of three veteran local supari merchants at Hospital Road , Jayanti Nagar and Gopal Nagar respectively and seized illegal consignments of Burmese Supari weighing altogether 6635 kilograms . The police has estimated the value of the supari brought from Silchar at more than Rs 25 lakhs in the open market . ” We have seized a total of 6, 635 kilogram Burmese Supari of which market value will be around Rs 25.21 lakh. Three traders namely Abdul Hakim, Prakash Saha and Sankar Saha have been apprehended for interrogation and investigations are still on .” , said DSP Mamoni Hazarika before media after the raids .
In this connection a case ( No: 217/21) u/s 420 / 379 /411/34 IPC was registered in Kharupetia Police Station and later all the accused traders were remanded to judicial custody through the court. It may be mentioned here that the Kharupetia area once happened to be the hub of local supari trade in the State. A heavy amount of revenue was generated from this industry and a large section of local people were also engaged for their livelihood. However with the illegal trading of Burmese Supari which is considered to be lower in price and polished to look for the customers, it gradually ruined the future market of the local supari industry. The local supari trade still persists in the area but in a very limited manner and a section of veteran traders already in the business for long now look for dealing with the Burmese Supari in such an illegal manner in connivance with a section of corrupt police and officials of the other law enforcing government agencies for a bigger profit making motive. Local people on promise of anonymity have alleged that police had made similar raids couple of times in recent past however legal action has come to the notice of the public only after Sushanta Biswa Sarma took charge as the new Superintendent of Police of the district .
