Rohania police on Sunday arrested a Prahladghat man accused of helping the alleged kingpin of a codeine cough syrup trafficking network get a drug licence in Ranchi, police said. The arrest was announced by the Varuna Zone of the Varanasi Commissionerate police on Sunday evening.
The accused, Vikas Singh, is a native of Kayasth Tola and was picked up from Prahladghat, according to details of the investigation. He runs a small shop selling electrical goods. The official update from the zone confirmed that Rohania police had arrested one accused in the codeine cough syrup trafficking case, without going into his alleged role.
Investigators allege that Vikas Singh rented a three-bedroom flat in Ranchi, Jharkhand, for about two months and obtained a drug licence there with the help of Bhola Prasad. Bhola Prasad is the father of Shubham Jaiswal, also of Kayasth Tola in Prahladghat, whom police describe as the kingpin of the racket. Using that licence, Vikas Singh allegedly opened a medicine agency called Shambhavi Pharma.
The key allegation concerns a piece of paper. Police say Vikas Singh issued Shubham Jaiswal a certificate showing two years of experience in the drug trade, which Shubham then used for a drug licence of his own. On the strength of it, he allegedly became the registered competent person of a Ranchi firm, Shaili Traders, and with other accused moved large quantities of Phensedyl, a codeine-based cough syrup.
Wholesale drug licences in India are not issued to a firm on its own. The applicant has to name a competent person, either a registered pharmacist or someone who can show qualifying experience in handling medicines, and that person is responsible for the stock. An experience certificate is one of the documents a licensing authority relies on, which is why investigators treat the alleged false certificate as the step that opened the door to the trade.
The trail to Vikas Singh began with Rohania police's own case. Officers investigating a recovery of 500 cartons of cough syrup in their area travelled to Ranchi and contacted the drug department there, and it was through those records that his name surfaced, according to the investigation details. He was then made an accused in the case and arrested.
Investigators have described the wider racket as being worth about Rs 2,000 crore. Police have not released a breakdown of how that figure was reached, and it covers the network as a whole rather than any single seizure. None of the people named in the case has been convicted, and all of them are presumed innocent until a court rules otherwise.
The case has already drawn in Vikas Singh's family. His son, Varun Singh, is also an accused and remains untraced, and transactions in Varun's bank account had come up earlier in the investigation, according to police. During the probe, police had also arrested Vikas Singh's wife and a liquor licensee.
Codeine is a narcotic, and syrups containing it can be sold legally only as prescription medicines through licensed chemists. Large consignments diverted from the licensed supply chain are a long-standing problem in eastern Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states, where the syrup is sold as an intoxicant. Licensing records, rather than a raid, were what led to this arrest, and the police have not said how many other licences in the network are now under examination.
Police and enforcement agencies across the region have been working through a run of cases built on paperwork and supply chains this autumn. The Economic Offences Wing recently held an agent in a Rs 1.5 crore loan fraud case linked to Jaunpur, while in neighbouring Sonbhadra, police arrested two men with ganja valued at over Rs 1 crore near Pipri.
On the medicine side, enforcement has been showing up in smaller ways too. Earlier this month Manduadih police removed posters advertising guaranteed cures from outside their station. The cough syrup case is on another scale entirely, and with Sunday's arrest, investigators have begun following the licences back to the people who signed them.
