1,160 bottles of cough syrup seized from Himachal unit sealed in 2019

Ambika Sharma

Solan, April 19

The Himachal police have seized 1,160 bottles of sedative cough syrup from a sealed pharmaceutical unit, Apple Field, at Majra in Paonta Sahib industrial area of Sirmaur district.

The bottles of Kufflock codeine phosphate chlorpheniramine maleate syrup were allegedly found stocked in boxes concealed behind the ceiling of a waste packaging room. Though priced at Rs 125, each bottle was fetching Rs 300 and even the abandoned stock was being sold on the sly.

Contained codeine

• Codeine syrup bottles found hidden in sealed factory
• Codeine falls under controlled substance category
• Priced at Rs 125, each bottle was fetching Rs 300 on the black market

Codeine is an opiate falling under the controlled substance category. It is disbursed by the Gwalior-based Central Bureau of Narcotics. All units are supposed to file quarterly returns of the substance used.

The manufacturing at the unit was suspended in 2019 after it was sealed following the seizure of illegally stocked intoxicants and fake labelling material of renowned firms from a godown hired by the company in the factory’s vicinity. The factory owners had since surrendered the manufacturing licence.

Paonta Sahib DSP Ramakant Thakur said 187 bottles of sedative cough syrup were on April 17 confiscated from a local youth, Sandeep Kumar, who led the police to the unit. The factory was searched in the presence of its co-owner Rajeev Kumar, a resident of Yamunanagar district in Haryana, who was found inside the unit when a police team arrived there. The search led to the seizure of the 1,160 syrup bottles of batch number AF/19101, manufactured in March 2019.

“During his interrogation, Rajiv Kumar revealed that there were aberrations in labelling, which led to the rejection of the stock. The manufacturing and expiry dates barely showed a month’s gap,” said the DSP. A case under sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against Rajiv and an investigation is underway.

The seizure has also raised a question mark over the role of the officials of the Drugs Control Administration as they failed to seize the entire stock when the unit was raided and sealed in 2019. Sunny Kaushal, Assistant Drugs Licensing Authority, Paonta Sahib, said the Apple Field unit was sealed in 2019. It was non-operational, though some machinery was inside the unit.