Agartala, Nov 2 (PTI) The Tripura Pradesh Youth Congress Committee (TPYCC) on Sunday wrote to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits involved in dealing with the banned cough syrup which was seized from a goods train in West Tripura's Jirania railway station last month.

Security forces recovered 1.07 lakh bottles of a particular brand of cough syrup, worth Rs 5.40 crore, from the train on October 15.

So far, one person was arrested in connection with the case.

"With deep pain, concern, and resentment, we, the Tripura Pradesh Youth Congress, put forth the alarming situation of the state which has brought the youth of the state almost to an edge of destruction and decay which is caused, along with other means, we feel it shameful to say, by the Railway system itself too," TPYCC president Neel Kamal Saha said in the letter.

He said a huge quantity of banned cough syrup was recovered from two full wagons of a goods train at Jirania.

"Surprisingly, even after such a long period, the police have not been able to arrest anybody associated with this drug racket. Needless to say, peddlers who can bring drugs using rail are not ordinary merchants," he said.

Saha alleged that the drug smugglers are all big fishes belonging to the BJP camp, whom the police are afraid of questioning or arresting.

"This is just one example. Such incidents are an everyday occurrence in the state, which is turned into a drug smuggling corridor," he said.

Saha added that the arrest and befitting punishment of the culprits would give a message to all such drug peddlers. PTI PS NN