CBI books NCB officials for bribery

New Delhi: As cough syrup continues its rise as a popular opioid in India, given its easy availability and cheap prices, the CBI has registered a case against several officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau for burying the recovery of six kilos of codeine phosphate, a pain-killing chemical component derived from opium, often used in cough syrups as an analgesic.

According to a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation last week, NCB Inspector Raj Kumar in Delhi was allegedly paid Rs 12 lakh to make the drug recovery go away by Neeraj Bhatia, a director of Three B Healthcare through a middleman known as Vishwadeep Bansal.

In its FIR, the CBI alleged that the NCB had conducted a raid at the factory of Three B Healthcare in Paonta Sahib, Himachal on May 31, 2016, and found 6 kg of the banned substance.

The CBI has said that Bhatia was afraid for the reputation of his general manager - Rajender Singh Rajput - because the drugs were found in his almirah and had allegedly arranged for one Vishwadeep Bansal to pay off the top brass at the NCB headquarters in the Capital to make the matter go away.

The agency went on to say that after having a word with Bhatia about negotiations with NCB officials regarding the case, Bansal allegedly met with senior officers of the NCB at the Delhi headquarters and asked Bhatia to pay Rs 12 lakh if he wanted the matter to be resolved.

The probe agency has further alleged that Bhatia on Jun 13, 2016, paid the amount to Bansal, who then allegedly passed the bribe money on to Raj Kumar, an NCB Inspector in New Delhi. The CBI is also looking into the role of other officials of the NCB in the case.