NCB raids Haridwar pharma firm, seizes 3 kg intoxicant powder

In a major seizure, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Amritsar zone, here has recovered around 3kg of intoxicant powder and over 11,000 of codine syrup bottles from a godown in Haridwar of Uttarakhand. The entire consignment was produced in a local court here on Monday.

The recovery was made following the interrogation of Ankit Patel of Ram Dham Colony and Ajit Singh of Sinhniwala. They were arrested by the NCB in February this year, though the owner of the firm had managed to flee. According to reliable sources in the NCB, they were brought on police remand for further investigations during which they came to know about another godown from where the present seizure was made.

The sources said out of 11,000 codine syrup bottles recovered, the batch number was written on 2,400 bottles while around 9,200 bottles did not have any batch number. They said the pharmaceutical firm under the radar has four godowns in Haridwar.

Earlier, three trucks laden with sedative pills and syrups were seized by the agency. The sources said the firm was exporting the syrups in other countries also, including Nigeria.

On January 4, the NCB had arrested Naveen from a medicine shop and recovered 24,000 of habit-forming pills from his possession. His interrogation led to the arrest of Sonu and Harsh Kumar of Gate Hakima while further investigations led to the recovery of 34,000 pills from Sukhpal Singh and Harwinder Singh of Beas. On January 8, NCB sleuths arrested Manpreet Singh of New Amritsar in the case.

As per the sources, their interrogation led the NCB team to the Dehradun-based pharmaceutical firm where a raid was conducted and two workers were arrested from the spot by it.