Bolangir: In a major achievement, Bolangir Town Police busted a huge interstate organised gang dealing with illegal Eskuf Syrup smuggling with the arrested of 38 operatives, seizure of 12960 bottles of Eskuf Syrup, one pistol and other incriminating articles.
On the directions of Bolangir SP Nitin Kusalkar, a special team zeroed in on the gang operatives after raids in different locations of Bolangir, Bargarh and Cuttack districts. First, the 45 cartons of illegal cough syrup were seized near Sudapada overbridge from a four-wheeler while being smuggled to Bolangir and a notorious criminal and drugs smuggler Prashan Kheti was apprehended from the vehicle along with the seizure of a country-made mouser, 2 swords, Rs 7,500, etc. were from him.
After raids at some warehouse in Cuttack, 40 boxes of illegal cough syrup were seized and it was known that Toofan Badhei alias Pintu is suspected to be the mastermind of the illegal cough syrup smuggling and the roots of the racket was traced to Kolkata, informed SP Nitin Kusalkar at a press conference held here today. The SP said that a huge drug trafficking syndicate is working in Bolangir, and many more such illegal traders would be arrested in the coming days.
Kusalkar also said that the main supplier of Kolkata will be arrested and an investigation will be conducted on the basis of which Eskuf company is manufacturing and selling cough syrup in such huge quantity. Approximately Rs 2 Crore of a Supplier company, M/S-Daffodil Drugs Pvt. Ltd. Kolkata has been frozen, the police official further informed.
Among the arrested accused are Prashant Kheti, Rajesh Behera and others of the Sananegi gang who have been caught many times by the Balangir police.
Among those arrested are Babulu Bagarti of Balangir, Rajesh Naik, Rajkumar Meher, Shibu Panda, Rakesh Pradhan, Satya Pradhan, Rajkumar Rana, Rajkishore Pradhan, Anand Sandha, Paras Danga, Mantu alias Dhabaleshwar Jena, Rajesh Behera, Ratan Singh, Kalinga Merli, Raja Jena, Abhay Sahu, Haresh Pradhan, Bablu Behera, Prashant Jena, Jagyanseni Meher, Dalimba Barik, Mamata Kumbhar, and Shantilata Jena.
Similarly, Nehru Sahu, Harish Chandra Sahu, Kartar Singh, Suresh Patra of Bargarh district, Tofan Badhei, Saroj Jena, Ranjit Raut, Somnath Behera, and Mahima Raut of Cuttack district have been arrested. Besides, Ravikumar Pal and Raj Kapoor of Uttar Pradesh are also among the arrested.
These drug dealers are smuggling illegal cough syrup from Kolkata to various districts of Odisha through Cuttack and selling it to the local youth. There is a huge amount of profit in this business mainly due to the fact that young people of the middle age are using this drug. A bottle of cough syrup is bought for only Rs 15 and is being sold for Rs 150 to Rs 200.
In this raid, a total of 12,960 bottles of cough syrup valued at Rs 35 lakhs, one country-made mouser, one Mahindra XUV, two pickup vans, one Tata Ace van, 2 bikes, Rs 7,500 in cash, 17 mobile phones, gold and other incriminating articles have been seized.
Sadar SDPO Toofan Bagh, Inspectors K. Priyanka Routrayi & Srikanth Sahu, SI Kirankumar Jani, ASI Rakesh Behera, Cyber Cell’s Brajkishore Mishra and constables of DVF were involved in the raid.
