3
ED Raid: In the cough syrup scandal case of Uttar Pradesh, Enforcement Directorate (ED) teams on Friday raided 25 locations of the syndicate in six cities.
ED Raid: In the cough syrup scandal case of Uttar Pradesh, Enforcement Directorate (ED) teams on Friday raided 25 locations of the syndicate in six cities. Raids were conducted at several places in different states as part of a money laundering investigation against the illegal codeine-based cough syrup trade racket. ED’s investigation is going on in Lucknow, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Jaunpur, Saharanpur and Ranchi. Two locations of main accused Shubham Jaiswal have been raided in Varanasi. On the other hand, Divesh Jaiswal’s house in Khojwa, Varanasi has also been raided regarding the cough syrup case. Whereas in Lucknow, the premises of accused Alok Singh were also raided. While investigating the codeine laced cough syrup scandal, UP STF arrested two accused Abhishek Sharma and Shubham Sharma from near Lucknow Alam Bagh. During interrogation, the entire network of Shubham Jaiswal, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000, came to light.
Goods were sent to Bengal using fake bills
Both of them told STF that both of them worked for Vishal and Vibhor Rana. Vishal and Vibhor had business relations with Shubham Jaiswal. Together, all three used to smuggle cough syrup containing codeine. Goods were sent to places other than Bengal by creating fake e-way bills from Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Agra. The syrup was delivered to many states of the country through the network of Vishal and Vibhor. Meanwhile, Shubham acquired the super stockist position of Abbott Company in Ranchi in the name of his father Bhola Jaiswal. After this, under the guise of license and documents, he started smuggling cough syrup on a large scale. Police said that apart from Ranchi and Ahmedabad, more than 25 premises were searched in Lucknow, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Saharanpur of Uttar Pradesh.
SIT is investigating the case
The Central Investigation Agency (ED) has registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognizance of around 30 FIRs lodged by the UP Police for investigation. The syrups are abused as narcotics and one of them, Phensedyl, is smuggled into Bangladesh in large quantities through the international border between the two countries. ED officials said the total proceeds of crime are around Rs 1,000 crore. During the search, officials recovered 46,891 cough syrup bottles from the office of a company located in Transport Nagar area of Lucknow. Apart from this, computer equipment and documents were also recovered from all the places. Shubham Jaiswal is said to have fled to Dubai, while his father Bhola Prasad Jaiswal was recently arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police from Kolkata International Airport while he was trying to flee abroad. Officials said that the state police has detained a total of 32 people so far. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to investigate the case.
Also read: Illegal drug factory busted in Himachal, medicines worth Rs 6 lakh seized, employees ran away as soon as the raid was conducted
