SAMBALPUR: Police on Monday busted an inter-State gang involved in illegal trading of codeine-laced cough syrup and arrested three persons. As many as 385 bottles of cough syrup were seized from their possession.
The accused are kingpin Satish Agrawal (55) of Sareipali in Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh, Bikash Bag (33) of Gopalmal within Ainthapali police limits in Sambalpur city and Rajesh Dharua (26) of Nuapada in Bargarh district.
Acting on a tip off regarding illegal sale and purchase of codeine-laced cough syrup, a team of Town police conducted raid on Ring Road along Mahanadi river near Balibandha area on Sunday and apprehended Bikash with 50 syrup bottles.
During interrogation, Bikash disclosed that he had received the contraband from Rajesh, who had come to Sambalpur in a motorcycle with the consignment. Police personnel then gave Rajesh a chase and apprehended him near Rajghat. As many as 155 cough syrup bottles were found from the bag of Rajesh.
While quizzing Rajesh, police found involvement of Satish in the illegal trade and subsequently, arrested him. As many as 180 bottles of cough syrup were seized from Satish.
Sambalpur SDPO BG Mohanty said though the cough syrup bottles were priced at `96, the accused were selling those at `200.The trio was arrested under Sections 274, 275 and 34 of the IPC and further investigation is on.Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Khetrajpur police arrested one Amit Kumar Sahu of Badabazar in the city and seized 12 litres of adulterated cough syrup, six bottles of codeine-laced cough syrup and tablets from his possession.