A total of 915 people were arrested in connection with 551 drug related cases registered in different police stations of Tripura in the first 10 months of 2023.

Replying to a written question in the second day of winter session of Tripura Legislative Assembly on Monday, Social Welfare and Sports Minister Tinku Roy said that the administration has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against drug trafficking since the first BJP government was formed in the state in 2018.

He said that a total of  915 people were arrested in connection with 551 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the first ten months of 2023.

During the same period, police and other security forces have seized over 40,000 kg of dry Cannabis (Ganja), cough syrup of 2.98 lakh bottles, 3.85 lakh tablets, 18.26 kg of Heroin , said Roy.

From 2013 to 2017, only 425 people were arrested in 404 NDPS cases, said Roy, who has been made in charge of the state’s Home department as Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha is now outside Tripura.

During the rule of the first BJP government in the state between 2018 and 2022, 2,918 people were arrested in connection with 1,939 NDPS cases, he said.

The minister also said 121 rapes, 133 molestation cases and 18 murders were recorded during the ten months of the last year (2023).

Altogether 825 rapes cases, 845 molestations and 126 murders were reported from 2018 to 2022, and the crime against women was very high during the 2013-2017 period with 1,077 rapes, 1,737 molestations and 142 murders reported to the police, he said.

Asserting that the overall law and order situation in the  state is "quite satisfactory", Roy said there has been no steep increase in murder cases, abduction and unnatural deaths in the past three years.