BHUBANESWAR : In a major crackdown on sale of banned drugs, the Commissionerate Police on Wednesday seized around 1,700 bottles of cough syrup smuggled to the state capital and apprehended two persons in this connection.
The accused, Jagannath Jena (47) of Baincho village in Jagatsingpur and Anil Kumar Nayak (25) of Tikatal in Khurda were staying in the capital city and were allegedly involved in illegal transport of banned cough syrups. Their criminal antecedents are being verified, police said.
The total volume of the seized cough syrup is said to be around 168 litre. As per Nayapalli police, acting on information, a huge quantity of Wincerex cough syrup bottles had been brought by two persons in a bus from Kolkata without any valid documents, a team was sent to a bus stop near Mancheswar to conduct a raid.
Following the raid, around 1,680 bottles of cough syrup were seized from the accused. Based on the seizure, police registered a case under section 21 (b) of the NDPS Act and forwarded the accused to court. Police found the duo had smuggled the cough syrup bottles to the city to transport them to other parts of the state.
With the banned cough syrups finding their way into retail markets illegally for use as cheap alternatives to narcotics, police are conducting a thorough probe into the matter. More details will be known after the investigation is completed, said a senior officer.