Spurious drugs: Punjab drug trail ends in Uttarakhand; unit sealed

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, December 26

The arrest of two peddlers allegedly involved in the smuggling of habit-forming and intoxicating medicines led the district police to an illegal drug manufacturing unit in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Its owner Usman Rajpoot was arrested and the police seized 4.05 lakh tablets. The local administration sealed the unit and launched an investigation.

Usman has been brought to Amritsar on police remand. The police said banned drugs were being supplied to different parts of Punjab. The unit was busted following the interrogation of Nishan Sharma of Sunder Nagar and Rajiv Kumar of the Namak Mandi area, who were arrested on December 21. As many as 29,920 tablets of tramadol, a banned drug, and Rs 29,000 were seized from their possession.

Police Commissioner Jaskaran Singh said during interrogation, the duo revealed they had bought the pills from Usman, owner of Rapport Remedies, Dehradun. He said the licence of the unit was cancelled by the Uttarakhand drug authorities in October this year. The officer said despite the cancellation of his firm’s licence, he continued to manufacture tramadol and other intoxica ing tablets.

“We have seized the record of the factory and are investigating its links with other suppliers,” he said.

Sources said the unit had been operational for the past several years. Besides Punjab, it supplied drugs to different parts of the country.

Peddlers’ arrest exposed racket

• Amritsar cops arrested two peddlers on Dec 21, seized 29,920 tablets of banned drug
• Duo revealed they bought pills from Usman, owner of Rapport Remedies, Dehradun
• Unit’s licence was cancelled in October, but it continued to make intoxicating drugs