CID busts pharma for selling drugs to Bangladesh illegally

A criminal case has been registered by the Telangana CID against Abott Health Care Pvt Ltd for transportation of illegal drugs to Bangladesh. The company manufactures cough syrup Phensedyl which contains narcotics components (codeine- isolated from opium) and can be misused for substance abuse.

Based on the complaint of Deputy Director, DCA, Telangana, a case has been registered under the sections 8, 21, 22 &29 of NDPS Act and Sec 468 and 471 of the IPC. Abott is headquartered at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh which supplied the stocks of Phensedyl to its carrying and forwarding (C&F) agency at Uppal.

During investigation, it was found that 5,100 bottles of the drug was illegally transported to Bangladesh. The Uppal depot invoiced the stocks to specific distributors recruited by the state marketing managers and his subordinates. These ‘retailers’ were billed large quantities of the stock. Investigation revealed that most of these ‘retailers’ were bogus.

The stock was then delivered to certain individuals through DLS transport in Nacharam who pooled the stocks and booked them by train from Secunderabad to Kolkata. The manufacturer, in collusion with their C&F agent and certain pharmaceutical dealer agencies, diverted this drug from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh markets to Kolkata and then further transported it to Bangladesh.

This has been done by falsification of paperwork in the name of non-existent firms or dealers. Approximately Rs 57.6 crore worth drugs were transported through this method. Based on the above information, the Deputy Director, DCA, Telangana, complained to Telangana CID that a criminal offence was made out as offences relating to narcotic and psychotropic substances, forgery for the purpose of cheating. DCA, under its act, can only book them for violations and has no power to arrest or question the perpetrators of crime.