A Jharkhand resident was arrested with 15 kg opium at the railway station here, the government railway police (GRP) said on Wednesday, terming it as the biggest catch by the GRP across the state so far.

The consignment was recovered from Satya Dev Tiru, 35, from Jharkhand on Tuesday, according to the CIA team in charge inspector Palwinder Singh.

“He was headed to Phagwara. After de-boarding from a train here, he was waiting at the platform to get a train to his destination. He started to act suspiciously upon seeing us. We stopped him and checked his bag and found the parcel,” Singh said.

Singh said the accused revealed that he gathered the opium from a few farmers in the jungle area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, which is notorious for opium cultivation.

“So far we have been able to confirm that he has carried opium into the state some seven times before as well. However, further investigation may reveal the true number of his earlier visits,” he said, adding that he was produced in a court which remanded it in three-day custody of the GRP.

A day before, the GRP here had caught a woman from Jharkhand with a 1 kg of opium.

With these two cases in the last two days, the total opium recovery this year so far has already reached 22 kg against 58 kg during the same period last year.

Including these two cases, six cases have been registered so far under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, at the GRP station here, this year. Four of the couriers have been women.

Meanwhile, assistant inspector general, GRP, Amarpreet Singh Ghumman, while appreciating the CIA team for its success, acknowledged that the department was short-staffed and said that he was in correspondence with the higher authorities to increase the sanctioned strength of GRP.

According to GRP officials, the sanctioned strength of the department was over 1400, but only 1200 were available as others were deputed elsewhere. The GRP station here has a strength of 100, which also includes 30 home guards.

Ghumman said that the department was asking to increase the sanctioned strength by 600-700.