Cough syrup kingpins father, attempting to flee country, arrested at Kolkata airport
Police arrested Bhola Prasad, father of a key suspect, at Kolkata airport, thwarting his escape amid a major crackdown on codeine cough syrup smuggling. This follows a massive Varanasi seizure of 93,000 bottles (Rs 2 Cr value) and implicates 38 pharmaceutical firms.
New Delhi: In a major blow to a sprawling codeine-based cough syrup smuggling ring, police on Sunday apprehended Bhola Prasad, the father of alleged mastermind Shubham Jaiswal, as he attempted to flee the country. Prasad, the owner of Jharkhand-based Shaili Traders, was detained at Kolkata airport by Sonbhadra police while trying to board a flight to Thailand. According to the intelligence inputs, his travel plan was to travel to Singapore.
Authorities believe his attempted international escape signals an effort to evade the escalating investigation, India Today reported.
Prasad is currently en route to Sonbhadra on a transit remand and is expected to be lodged in jail after the completion of necessary formalities at the Robertsganj police station. According to the police, his arrest is a critical development in the case. This comes after the Uttar Pradesh authorities intensified a crackdown on a large-scale network suspected of illicitly producing, transporting, and distributing codeine-based cough syrups across multiple states.
The probe has been rapidly expanding, with the state's Food and Drugs Department filing cases against an additional 12 pharmaceutical firms on Friday, linking them to a smuggling operation based in Varanasi. This brings the total number of implicated firms to 38, adding to the 26 previously identified.
Inspector Janab Ali stated that initial cases were filed on November 15, and the subsequent 12 firms were also flagged for suspicious activities. Upon visiting the listed addresses for inspections, many of these firms were found to be either shut down or had been replaced by other businesses. Despite notices being issued for clarification, the operators failed to respond, leading to the filing of a fresh case at the Kotwali police station.
The crackdown has gained huge momentum following a massive seizure in Varanasi last week, where approximately 93,000 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup, valued at an estimated Rs 2 crore, were recovered from a warehouse in the Rohania area.
This massive haul was made during a raid conducted by a police team based on a tip-off. While one worker involved in the loading operations was detained for questioning, the warehouse owner, identified as Mahesh Singh, remains at large and is currently being sought by authorities. Officials from the Drug Department and the Anti-Narcotics Task Force were promptly called to the scene to examine the seized stock.