Punjab Police claimed to have busted an interstate network of illegal opioid manufacturing and supply units allegedly running out of pharma factories based in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
A team from Punjab Police raided a pharmaceutical plant in Ahmedabad’s Changoda area in coordination with Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and recovered 14.72 lakh Tramadol tablets. Both the manufacturers have been arrested.
A Gujarat ATS officer said Punjab Police had approached them about “intoxicating” tablets being manufactured at a factory in Changodar.
“Though the owner had a licence to manufacture drugs, he had begun manufacturing Tramadol tablets, which he supplied to a man in Uttar Pradesh who ultimately sent them to Punjab.”
A senior official from the Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Authority (FDCA) said, “Tramadol, a painkiller, was notified by GOI two years back as its abuse was increasing in northern states, including Punjab. So, any production, transit of raw material and even the tablets should have been notified to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). FDCA Gujarat shares its data on Tamadol production with NCB frequently.”
Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the development follows month-long investigations of backward and forward linkages into the arrest of a local drug peddler identified as Prince Kumar of Amritsar. He was arrested after recovery of 14,500 intoxicant tablets. During questioning by Punjab police, one of the accused in Punjab had revealed that he was supplying the tablets on the directions of one Major Singh, who contacted him from Goindwal Sahib jail in Punjab, an official statement quoted Bhullar as saying.
Police have recovered a mobile phone from the possession of Major Singh who is in jail. Based on the disclosures, Baljinder Singh, Akash Singh, Surjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh, all residents of Patti in Tarn Taran, and Mohar Singh of Harike were arrested.
Gurpreet Singh and Major Singh disclosed that they got pharma drug supplies from Sachin Kumar of Kosi Kalan in Mathura. Sachin Kumar owned a pharma unit in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur, Bhullar said.
A Punjab Police team was sent to Uttar Pradesh to arrest Sachin Kumar. After he was arrested, it came to light that he, in connivance with Yogesh Kumar Rinku lodged in Mansa jail in Bathinda, prepared fake documents of a pharma unit and they were supplying intoxicant tablets in Punjab, the commissioner said.
Police also recovered a mobile phone from Yogesh Kumar, he said, adding that 12 people, including two inmates, have been arrested so far. Yogesh Kumar and Sachin Kumar revealed that they were getting supply of pharma opioids from a pharma unit based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, he said. Sachin Kumar met manufacturers Manish and Rekha in Delhi. They allegedly hatched a plan to illegally send the pharma opioids to Punjab via Hapur. They forged fake documents of the wholesale unit in the name of a pharma firm.
The manufacturers, in connivance with Yogesh Kumar and Sachin Kumar, sent pharma opioids to Hapur. From Hapur, consignments were then sent to Akash in Agra and he further shipped them to Amritsar, Bhullar said.
Police also arrested Akash from Agra and recovered 18,000 intoxicant tablets from his possession. So far, police teams have arrested 12 people in this case.
A case was registered under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Amritsar City police station, the commissioner said.
