10L tramadol pills could have been made with seized material: Cops

The 325 kg of unregistered tramadol salt, seized from the Haridwar-based firm by the Amritsar police, was enough to illegally manufacture as many as 10 lakh tablets of tramadol, which would have been further smuggled to Punjab in a clandestine manner, revealed police investigations.

“With the 325 kg tramadol salt recovered from the firm, Lucent Biotech Limited, in Haridwar, they can manufacture around 10 lakh more tablets, which could have been trafficked to Punjab,” said Dr Sheetal Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (East), while talking to The Tribune.

Nevertheless, it is not the first instance that such a huge haul of habit-forming drugs has been seized. Himachal Pradesh and Haridwar-based pharmaceutical firms had come under the scanner earlier also.

Following a two-week-long probe into a seizure of just 35 tablets of tramadol from a man led the Amritsar police to an illegal pharma opioid supply network originating from Haridwar in Uttarakhand and the recovery of a big haul of the habit-forming drug, raw material and drug money.

Two drug manufacturing units — Lucent Biotech Limited and Recall Lifesciences — at Roorkee and Haridwar, respectively, allegedly involved in the illegal supply of medicinal drugs in Punjab markets, were sealed by the police and their documents were being scrutinised, the police said.

Till now, the police have arrested six persons and recovered 74,465 tramadol tablets, 50 alprazolam pills and 325 kg of tramadol raw material, besides Rs 7.65 lakh drug money.

Those arrested have been identified as Bikram, the owner of Recall Lifesciences; Hari Kishore, the plant manager at Lucent Biotech Ltd; Kulwinder Singh, a medical store owner in Kathunangal; Manish Kumar Arora; and Pooran Jatav.

Notably, the seized tramadol strips had a disclaimer, which read “Government Supply Only – Not for Sale,” indicating illegal diversion of medical stock.

Dr Sheetal said names of several firms have cropped up during a probe and further probe was on and more arrests are likely to be made during further course of investigations.

Last year, the Special Task Force (now Anti-Narcotics Task Force) had arrested seven drug smugglers or suppliers and recovered 70.42 lakh intoxicating tablets/capsules, 725kg intoxicating tramadol powder and Rs 2.37 lakh of drug money.