Punjab Police raids Baddi pharma unit

A team of officials from the Punjab Police and Drugs Department today raided a pharmaceutical unit at Baddi after 50,000 tablets of tramadol were recovered by the Kathunangal police from two car-borne youth in Amritsar on Sunday.

Though tramadol is an opioid medicine used for short-term relief from pain, it is often misused as a sedative. The drug has a dual presence under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The Amritsar police have registered a case under the NDPS Act against the youth who were apprehended while carrying the tablets without any valid licence for sale.

State Drugs Controller Manish Kapoor, while confirming the news, said a drugs inspector and police officials from Amritsar sought assistance to raid a pharmaceutical unit in Baddi this morning.

The team verified various aspects, including the product permission, manufacturing licence, batch number of the seized tablets, besides slew of other verifications, of tramadol manufacturing in the said unit.

The officials tried to ascertain whether the seized tablets had been sold against a proper purchase order to an authorised dealer or had been diverted to the illegal markets. “The preliminary investigation carried out by the team of officials from Amritsar reveals that the company had proper documentation, along with the details of e-way bills and payment received for the sale of the seized tablets. No irregularity was found in the records as the company has the requisite product permission and approvals.”

The Punjab Police were probing the level at which the tramadol tablets had been diverted for unauthorised sale. The drug officials will, however, look into the shortcomings pointed by the drug inspector from Amritsar with respect to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) norms, said Kapoor.

Notably, several cases of opioid drugs manufactured in Baddi have been found diverted to illegal markets in Punjab, where these are sold at an exorbitant cost for drug abuse.