Amritsar: NCB arrests web journalist, pharmaceutical company owner

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested a web journalist and the owner of a pharmaceutical company, Deepak Bhandari, in connection with the seizure of psychotropic drugs. He was reportedly arrested from a hotel room in Mohali.

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Earlier, the central agency had arrested his brother Amit Bhandari and two private hospital doctors in the case on May 6. They were now in judicial custody. Besides, the NCB had also nominated several other family members of Deepak Bhandari in the case.

An NCB official confirmed his arrest while adding that he would be produced in a court seeking police remand for further investigations.

“Deepak Bhandari was arrested from a hotel in Mohali. We have also seized the hotel record,” said an NCB official wishing anonymity.

Amit Bhandari was arrested by the NCB on May 2 after the seizure of over 30,000 tablets of tramadol, a prescription painkiller often misused as a narcotic. A day later, it arrested two private hospital owners — Dr Jatinder Malhotra and Dr Rajinder Rajan — in the case. The NCB had recovered 2,000 tablets of tramadol from each one as they did not have the requisite licence to keep such a large quantity of psychotropic drugs. After the arrest of Amit Bhandari and two doctors, Deepak Bhandari, who had gone underground, went live on social media to publicly present his side of the story. He had refuted the accusations against him while stating that neither he nor his family members are involved in illegal activity. He further defended the doctors named in the case, asserting that they are legitimate medical professionals and are not involved in any illegal drug trade. Bhandari had claimed that his company holds a valid licence for the purchase and supply of tramadol.