Foreign cigs worth Rs 54L seized

The customs office seized foreign-made cigarettes worth Rs 54 lakh that were being illegally transported via train from Agartala to Bengaluru last week.

On August 29, around 11 pm, customs officers searched cargo being unloaded from the Humsafar Express. They identified 12 suspicious parcels, which contained foreign-made cigarettes worth Rs 2.71 lakh, a press release said.

The officers had received information from the headquarters, preventive unit, Bengaluru, that foreign-made cigarettes were being transported from Agartala to the city, and that the goods were misdeclared to evade detection. The cigarette packaging did not have mandatory pictorial health warnings. Selling such cigarettes is illegal under the COTP Act, an officer said.