Gelephu district court has sentenced a 27-year old man to three years in prison for smuggling tobacco products into the country.
According to a report on Kuensel, Lal Bahadur Neopaney from Gosaling, Tsirang, was arrested near the Gelephu border checkpost with 72 packets of chewing tobacco, 20 packets of bidi and a packet of Wills cigarette on April 21. The defendant was returning from Dadhgari, a small market across the border in Gelephu, at the time of the arrest, and Gelephu police on a routine check found the illegal products under the seat of his Hilux. Lal Bahadur has 10 days to appeal to the high court.
Meanwhile, Gelephu police, on May 15, arrested a 25-year old former royal Bhutan army soldier in connection with the smuggling of tobacco products.
The retired soldier, from Nganglam Dechenling, who resides in Tsirang, was arrested at the Dadhgari checkpost with 130 bundles of chewing tobacco. Police said the accused was taking the tobacco to people in his village as a gift.
He is the fifth Bhutanese to be arrested in Gelephu. About 30 people were arrested in the country after the implementation of tobacco act since this January.
