The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on several locations including the properties of two retired police officers and a former extremist in Tripura on Friday (January 10, 2024). The raids were part of an investigation into drug trafficking and illegal money transactions.
The raids began at 6 a.m. and continued until evening with ED teams from different offices in eastern India joining, based on information from various security and revenue intelligence agencies. This was the largest raid against State’s mafias trading different drug substances, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
The ED teams searched the properties of eight alleged drug mafias, two of whom were retired police personnel – Dhruva Majumder and Amal Baidya. The premises of former NLFT extremist Kamini Debbarma were also searched in Nandannagar, Agartala.
The police official revealed that the Tripura Police were not informed about the operations conducted in West Tripura, Gomati and Sepahijala districts. As part of the plan, the ED sent a requisition for 250 personnel to the office of the Tripura zone CRPF IG to escort their teams.
Sources have stated that documents of significant immovable assets and financial transactions, including probable Hawala transactions, were confiscated from the private residences of the “drug mafias”. Although the accused were not found during the simultaneous searches, their family members were questioned for hours.
One of the accused police personnel, Dhruva Majumder, was earlier arrested in June 2018 after then Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb launched the ‘Anti-Drug Campaign’. Majumder was accused of having a direct share in the illegal narcotic trade in Tripura and smuggling across Bangladesh.
The ED operation may continue tomorrow in more locations, sources stated.
Published – January 11, 2025 12:22 am IST
