Tramadol seizure: 3 pharma units, 8 distribution firms under scanner in Amritsar

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, January 13

Three pharmaceutical companies — two in Gujarat and one in Dehradun — have come under the scanner of the Punjab Police over the issue of huge quantities of Tramadol tablets being smuggled into the state by an interstate racket.

The police have arrested seven persons in the case till now and seized over 7.5 lakh tablets, besides Rs 4 lakh in drug money.

It was found during investigation that an Uttarakhand-based firm sealed by the Punjab Police on December 26 had manufactured over 4 crore Tramadol tablets illegally even after its licence was cancelled by Dehradun drug authorities in October last year.

Commissioner of Police Jaskaran Singh said that after scrutinising the records of the firm, the police have identified three more such companies — two in Gujarat and one in Dehradun — besides eight fake distribution firms located in Delhi.

In the probe to establish backward and forward linkages into the seizure of 29,000 tablets on December 21, a pharmaceutical company Rapport Remedies in Dehradun was sealed and over 4 lakh tablets were confiscated from the company’s premises located in the industrial area of Dehradun on December 26. The police had arrested the owner of the firm. Further, the investigation led to the busting of a distribution firm ‘A.pharma’ in Delhi, created using fake documents.

The Police Commissioner said the suspects used to procure the sedative pills in the name of these firms and later further sold them on fake bills. After six or seven months of operation, they used to shut down the firm and created another fake firm.