Banned cough syrup worth about Rs 1.25 cr seized

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of the state police nabbed two drug peddlers and seized banned cough syrup phensedyl worth about Rs 1.25 crore from Chanditala in Hooghly late on Thursday night. The arrested duo was produced at the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, Hooghly and 14 days police remand was granted. According to sources, acting on a tip off, STF officials were waiting at the Bora Kapasaria area on the Singur-Dankuni stretch of Durgapur Expressway under jurisdiction of Chanditala Police Station. After a few hours, the cops spotted a black SUV and a capsule tanker moving towards Kolkata and immediately intercepted them.

During a search of the tanker, cops found 9,500 phensedyl bottles wrapped in 78 packets. Two persons who were sitting inside the SUV identified as Prem Chand Yadav of Sankrail in Howrah and Hari Ji Singh of Arah, Bihar were arrested. During a preliminary probe, cops came to know that Singh had procured the contraband from Jharkhand and handed over the same to Yadav.

Though phensedyl is a medicine which is legal in other states, it is banned in Bengal as a preventive measure for putting a leash on its smuggling. One of the ingredients of phensedyl is codeine phosphate, which is a narcotic drug. Selling the said cough syrup without a valid prescription is illegal and the same is treated as drug smuggling. The price of phensedyl increases up to Rs 1,500 per bottle in Bangladesh depending upon the location which is quite cheap in India.