Nuapada: Acting on a tip-off, Nuapada police busted a cough syrup smuggling racket; seized a consignment worth over Rs 10 lakh and arrested four persons in this connection, here Thursday.
It is suspected that the arrested persons might have links with an inter-state racket engaged in cough syrup smuggling in the bordering areas of the state and Chhattisgarh.
The accused persons were identified as Sumit Kumar Baitharu, 30, of Komna, Sanjay Kumar Joshi, 36, of Krishna, Ramesh Sahu, 30, and Prakash Kukreja, 61, of ward no-1 in Khariar Road.
A van carrying the consignment was seized and a case under NDPS Act 1995 and Cosmetics Act-1940 was registered in this connection. The accused were interrogated on their involvement in the smuggling and later produced in the court.
This was stated here by SP Vinit Agrawal at a press conference organised at the Nuapada police station here Thursday.
The breakthrough came when intelligence inputs alerted the Nuapada police about the movement of a Tata Ace van (OD-19E-7094) from Raipur to Komna in Nuapada district, Wednesday. The SP immediately directed the Nuapada police to raid the place and seize the consignment.
Accordingly, a team of police personnel comprising SIs B Kerketta and BR Puhan; constables Birendra Kumar Panda, Chandrakanti Majhi, Rashmita Nayak, Sarat Hans and Ugrasen Sahu; and led by Nuapada IIC Aditya Kumar Mahakur raided Silda nullah and intercepted a van carrying the consignment.
The police personnel frisked the vehicle and seized 64 cartons of cough syrups from the van. The cartons contained 8,123 bottles of cough syrups whose market price was estimated to be worth over Rs 10 lakhs.
Among others ASP Sunil Kumar Acharya, SDPO Prasant Kumar Pattnaik, Khariar SDPO Biranchi Prasad Dehuri, Nuapada IIC and his counterparts Nirmal Kumar Panigrahi of Komna police station and Jyoti Prakash Goud of Sinapali police station were present at the press conference.