Tension erupts between BSF and State Police in Chapra over seized Venorex bottles
The Statesman | 6 November 2025
A routine anti-narcotics operation turned into a night of chaos and confrontation on Tuesday when a clash erupted between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the West Bengal Police over the custody of seized bottles of Venorex cough syrup — a banned substance frequently smuggled across the Indo-Bangladesh border.
The altercation, which took place around 8 p.m. in the Chapra police station area of Nadia district, left at least five policemen injured and led to the detention of a BSF jawan by the local police.
According to police and local sources, the trouble began when residents of Simanagar, located along the Krishnagar–Karimpur state highway, noticed several packets being unloaded from a vehicle and informed the Chapra police. On arrival, the police reportedly discovered a large quantity of the banned Venorex syrup — a codeine-based cough mixture widely used as an intoxicant — and began loading the seized contraband into their vehicle.
It was at this point, sources said, that personnel from the BSF’s 32nd Battalion, stationed at Simanagar, arrived and demanded that the seized goods be handed over to them. The police, citing procedural norms, refused to do so, insisting that narcotics-related cases fall strictly under the jurisdiction of the state police and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), not the BSF.
The argument quickly escalated into a heated altercation and, according to witnesses, soon turned physical. Reinforcements from both the Chapra police station and the BSF camp were rushed to the scene to bring the situation under control.
By late night, normalcy was restored, but not before tempers had flared between two agencies tasked with maintaining law and order in one of Bengal’s most sensitive border districts.
Police sources confirmed that one BSF jawan had been detained in connection with the scuffle, though no formal arrest had been made till the time of reporting. Five policemen, who sustained minor injuries during the confrontation, were treated at a local health centre.
When asked, DIG, BSF R P Udit, said, “Acting on a tip-off, the jawans were unloading some unclaimed packets from a vehicle. The packets were packed with banned Venorex bottles. But at that local police came and they tried to seize the articles. This led to some confrontations between them. Later they took a jawan to their police station.”
Additional SP, Krishnagar police district, Makwana Meetkumar said, “Our men were unloading the packets when some BSF jawans reached there and started claiming that these were to be handed over to them. When they refused, the BSF jawans started attacking our men.”
The episode underscores the persistent tension between central and state forces operating along Bengal’s porous border, where both agencies frequently overlap in counter-smuggling operations. Venorex, which is basically a substitute of Phensedyl, in particular, has long been a flashpoint — its rampant smuggling to Bangladesh fuelling both inter-agency friction and local criminal economies.
In the latest, the both forces conducted a meeting in the late night and resolved the issue. The unclaimed articles were later handed over before the Chapra police.