Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) A woman from Bihar was arrested with Rs 1.50 crore banned narcotics in her possession at Kaliachak in Malda district of West Bengal on Monday, an official said.

The police have identified the accused as Kanchan Devi, a resident of Bhagalpur in Malda district of West Bengal.

She was presented at a district court in Malda on Monday afternoon, and the court remanded her to police custody. The cops suspect that she is a part of a major interstate narcotics smuggling racket operating in the region.

An official said that the accused would be interrogated further in police custody to get the details of her associates in the racket.

In the face of initial interrogation, she had confessed that she procured the narcotics consignments from Malda and was supposed to take it to Bihar.

Police source said that the cops of Baishnabnagar Police Station were informed on Sunday about the attempt to smuggle a huge consignment of narcotics from the area to outside the state.

The cops started an investigation into the matter, and on early Monday, they found the accused woman loitering around mysteriously at a particular crossing in the area. She was apprehended and questioned by the cops.

After the cops found her statement contradictory, they frisked the handbag she was carrying. There, they recovered 1.34 kilograms of banned brown sugar, whose estimated market value is about Rs 1.5 crore.

She was first detained and brought to the local police station, where another round of integration followed.

“In the face of questioning, she confessed that she was a resident of Bhagalpur in Bihar, and she had come to Malda just to collect the narcotics assignment and take them to Bihar. We suspect that she is just a cog in the wheel of a major inter-state narcotics smuggling racket with Malda being on its base,” a district police official said.

–IANS

src/dan