Section 144 promulgated to curb smuggling

 

COOCH BEHAR, July 18: The district magistrate of Cooch Behar, Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha has promulgated Section 144 CrPC along the entire International border in Cooch Behar district. The said order shall remain in force till 7 September. Any person violating the order shall be liable for prosecution under Section 188 IPC.

 

The district magistrate has promulgated the Section 144 CrPC with an aim to prevent breach of peace and large scale smuggling of essential commodities into Bangladesh by miscreants and antisocial elements.

 

Persons and agencies lawfully employed in connection with maintenance of law and order, prevention of smuggling and for gathering intelligence inputs are exempted from the purview of the order.

 

Under the order no person shall carry twenty-three scheduled commodities within a distance of one-kilometre from the Indo-Bangladesh border in eight police stations in the district, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. without prior written permission of the district magistrate or SDO or BDO concerned. These eight police stations are : Mathabhanga, Mekhliganj, Kuchlibari, Haldibari, Tufanganj, Dinhata, Sitai and Sitalkuchi.

 

Twenty-three commodities described in Schedule-A in the order, were restricted for carrying. These are : rice and paddy, wheat and wheat products, kerosene, sugar, mustard oil, coconut oil, fertilisers, textile goods, iron and steel, bidi leaves, tobacco, machine parts, baby food, cycle parts, salt, tea, dry batteries, petrol and diesel, raw jute, dal, cattle, cement and betel nuts.

 

Following the order, markets and shops of that zone will not be allowed to transact business in the night from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. By the same order, a ban was also clamped on the grazing of cattle within 300 metres of the Indo-Bangladesh border during the night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

 

In his order the district magistrate, Mr Sinha mentioned that the prohibitory order was promulgated following information that there was serious apprehension of breach of peace in the Indo-Bangladesh border areas of the district due to shortage of essential commodities caused by large scale smuggling into Bangladesh by miscreants and anti-social elements. []

 

7-yr RI for selling fake stamp paper

 

COOCH BEHAR, July 18: The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cooch Behar, Mr Manojyoti Bandyopadhyay today sentenced a stamp-vendor to seven years rigorous imprisonment for selling counterfeit stamp paper in 1998.

 

When asked about the case, the Assistant Public Prosecutor Mr Dipen Kumar Chaudhury said a stamp-vendor named Md Sahjahan Mian had sold a stamp paper of denomination of Rs 500 to Mr Ashok Kumar Dam and Ms Mayarani Dam on 1 July 1998. Later during its use it was revealed that the stamp paper was a forged one. Considering the seriousness of the incident the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was entrusted to investigate into the matter. After conducting a thorough inquiry the CID had framed a chargesheet on which the trial started. Twenty-four witnesses were examined at the court during the trial.

 

Today, declaring the judgement, the CJM Mr Manojyoti Bandyopadhyay ordered seven years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 to the accused for selling fake stamp paper. In default of submitting the fined amount he will have to suffer an additional six months imprisonment. The judge also sentenced the accused to seven years RI and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 under another Section for selling the stamp paper knowing it as counterfeit. Both the punishments will go on concurrently, the APP Mr Dipen Kumar Chaudhury said. []