Himachal: 26.4 lakh iron, vitamin tablets seized from Baddi warehouse

The Baddi police have launched a campaign against the illegal trade and storage of narcotics, intoxicating drugs and banned medicines. As part of the campaign, a team of Baddi police, while investigating a case registered on August 26 under the NDPS Act, had raided another warehouse at Billanwali and recovered a huge cache of drugs. During further investigation, the police learnt about another warehouse where unauthorised drugs were allegedly stored. The warehouse was raided last evening.

“Drug Inspector Harish Ranaut seized the drugs under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. A case against the accused shall be registered under Section 18(c) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act,” said State Drugs Controller Dr Manish Kapoor.

Investigations are under way to determine the roles of those involved in the manufacturing as well as unauthorised storage of the drugs.

During the search of the earlier warehouse, various narcotic and restricted medicines, besides other material stored in cardboard boxes, sacks and packets, were recovered by a police team. The seized drugs comprised 55,650 tablets of clonazepam (0.25/0.5 mg), 3,05,518 tablets of alprazolam (0.5/1 mg), 19,245 capsules of tramadol-dicyclomine, 3,100 tablets of tramadol hydrochloride, 20.96 kg of tramadol/clonazepam/alprazolam powder, 22.26 kg of tramadol powder and 41 bottles of codeine phosphate and triprolidine syrup, besides printed foils for alprazolam, tramadol and clonazepam, among others, weighing 49.14 kg.

Additionally, medicines falling under the purview of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules were recovered. A case was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act against warehouse owner Ankit Kaurshal, 38, a resident of Amethi.

Baddi SP Vinod Dhiman said, “The Baddi police will not spare anti-social elements involved in illegal activity in the area. Adopting a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards those involved in the drug trade and other unlawful activities, the police will continue to take strict action against them in the future.”

The recovery of a huge cache of unauthorised drugs has posed a major challenge before the regulators, as in several cases licensed premises are allegedly being used to manufacture habit-forming or narcotic drugs for commercial gains.