A POLICEMAN who is in an Indian prison accused to trying to smuggle more than £1million of heroin into Britain has resigned.

Lancashire Police have confirmed that PC Shabir Mubarak, who was based at Bamber Bridge police station, has quit the force, nearly a year after being arrested in India.

Mubarak, 41, of Lostock Hall, near Preston, was arrested with four other men on February 19 after officials at Bombay airport found a whisky box filled with nearly 50kg of 'high quality' heroin.

More drugs are alleged to have been found in PC Mubarak's suitcase.

Officials from India's Narcotics Control Bureau claim Mubarak confessed to having smuggled drugs for more than two years.

They say he used his warrant card to try to get the drugs -- alleged to have come from the Indian Mafia -- through customs.

They also claim to have been watching the five men for several months with a similar haul going out of India in December.

At the time, Mubarak, a special constable in Blackburn during the 1980s, was on sick leave following heart surgery.

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "His resignation letter has been accepted by the chief constable, Pauline Clare."

There is no known date for Mubarak's trial in India, where he claims to have been beaten.