|
 Joining with the prohibition and excise wing of Renga Reddy district in Telangana, the drug control administration (DCA) in Hyderabad busted an illegal network involved in the diversion and sale of codeine-based cough syrups.
The excise officials arrested three persons in connection with this, including two license holders of medical shops, and a woman carrier of illegal cough syrups.
Sources from the DCA said the operation began with detecting a case by the prohibition and excise department of Ranga Reddy involving illegal possession of dry ganja, weighing 1.050 kg from two individuals, namely Vaibhav Kulakarni and Manupati Bhanu Prakash, at a place called Ramanthapur. During interrogation, the accused revealed information pertaining to the sale of codeine phosphate syrup by a woman in the Lalapet area of Secunderabad.
Accordingly, the enforcement officials managed to detect 13 bottles of codeine phosphate syrup from the woman who was carrying it on a two-wheeler to deliver to somebody else. The drug control officials said the name of the woman as Nalla Rajini who failed to produce a valid drug licence or medical prescription for the possession of this much quantity of the syrup. Upon questioning, she confessed that she got the drug from Generic World Medical Shop, located at Vidyanagar in Hyderabad.
The officers of the DCA and the excise department conducted a decoy operation at the medical shop, Generic World, and found that the vendor sold three bottles of codeine syrup without issuing a bill or obtaining a valid prescription. The DC officials seized 80 bottles of the syrup stocked there.
Sources from the drug control office informed that the inspection revealed grave irregularities including sale of codeine-based cough syrup without prescription of the registered medical practitioner, failure to maintain sales records as mandated by the drug act etc. It was informed that the medical store procured the syrup from Himalaya Pharma at Bowenpally in Medchal-Malkajgiri district. This shop is operated by a relative of the licence holder of the Generic World Medical Shop.
Soon the drug control officers, along with the prohibition and excise team, raided the Himalaya Pharma at Bowenpally and recovered documents confirming the sale of the codeine syrups to Generic World Medical Shop. Irregularities were also found in the operation of Himalaya Pharma including the sale of codeine-based cough syrups without prescription and failure to maintain proper sales records regarding 80 bottles of the syrups.
Accordingly, the excise officials arrested three persons including the woman who was found in illegal possession of the syrup. The licensees of the Generic World Medical shop, AK Singhal and of Himalaya Pharma, DK Goyal were arrested.
Officers from drug control administration and the excise department participated in the raids. J. Jeevan Kiran, assistant excise superintendent of prohibition and excise enforcement wing in Ranga Reddy, Bala Raju, prohibition and excise inspector and Ravi Challa, prohibition and excise sub Inspector represented the department of prohibition and excise, whereas D. Saritha, assistant director of the DCA at Secunderabad, Dr. K. Prabhakar, ADC at Quthbullapur, B. Govind Singh, drugs inspector at Secunderabad, P. Renuka, drugs inspector at Musheerabad, E. Thirupathi, drugs inspector at Quthbullapur, E. Naresh Reddy, drugs inspector at Balanagar and I. Srikanth, drugs inspector at Gajularamaram were the DCA members.
|