While another man has been locked up for smuggling in tobacco products

Crime: Samdrupjongkhar police on October 26 arrested a 78-year-old man from Dewathang after his 75-year-old wife complained about him harassing her and her mother under the influence of alcohol and for locking them inside the house every day.

She lodged a verbal complain through the police toll free number 113 while they were locked inside the house. The police on reaching the house saw that the mother and daughter were locked inside and the door latched and tied with a rope.

Police has charged the accused for infringement of movement and verbal harassment since he is alleged to threaten the women if they try to escape or inform the police.

Such harassment, police said, was happening for almost a week where they were locked inside the house without food, water or toilet for an entire day.

“But the women informed that although he threatened and harassed verbally, he didn’t hit them,” police said. “When we reached the spot we also found urine on the floor and there were cases when they had to defecate inside.”

According to the victim’s statement, they were divorced for about 20-years but remarried last year. Police said whenever they were locked in they called her sister who lived few meters away to open the door.

However, the suspect has denied the allegation and accused his wife for setting him up. The case is under investigation.

Meanwhile, on October 27, police detained a 35-year-old man from Trashigang for smuggling tobacco products into the country.

According to police, the suspect, a labour supervisor with a private company was caught in possession of 680 packets of cigarettes and 71 packets of chewing tobacco wrapped in a brown curtain.

The suspect was caught during regular frisking of commuters near the border gate around 9pm.

The suspect in his statement to police confessed to have bought the tobacco products from Mela Bazaar, the adjacent border town. But he stated that the products were not for the sale and were instead bought to distribute to his labourers working in Samdrupcholing dungkhag.

“The incident showed that there are people who still do not know about the tobacco Act or the permissible limit of these products,” police said. “The permissible quantity is 800 sticks of cigarettes or 750 grams of other tobacco or tobacco products.”

This is the first smuggling case of tobacco products this year along with two cases of controlled substance smuggling.

Yangchen C Rinzin,  Samdrupjongkhar