Bolangir: In a major breakthrough, acting on a tip-off on smuggling of illegal cough syrups, Bolangir police Friday conducted a raid and seized 5,920 bottles of Eskuf cough syrup under the operation ‘Mission Clean’ against peddling of narcotics substances in Bolangir district.
Five persons were arrested following the raids.
In order to curb illegal use and sale of the said cough syrup in Cuttack, a special team under the leadership of Sadar SDPO S Barik comprising of Sadar PS IIC Tophan Bag, SI J Bhoi, SI G Xaxa and ASI R Kumbhar blocked the Bolangir-Patnagarh near Patharchepa and intercepted two vehicles – an Ashok Leyland pick-up and a Mahindra TUV 300 Plus. While the driver of Ashok Leyland Kirtichandra Sandh and his associate Makund Charan Nag were arrested, the officials also seized 30 cartons of Eskuf cough syrup.
On the other hand, Golu alias Laxminarayan Agrawal and his associates Lalit Bajpei and Bikash Duria were nabbed from the Mahindra TUV with seven cartons of the cough syrup containing 160 bottles of 100 ml each.
It was learnt that they were operating as an organized criminal organization and were transporting the cough syrup from Cuttack under the leadership of Golu who managed the Bolangir area and Bajpei who managed the Bargarh area. Duria and Nag were operating in Nuapada district.
A case under certain IPC section of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 has been registered in this regard.
Following the development, district police Tuesday took out an awareness rally in an attempt to educate citizens about the ills of addiction. Bolangir police said that the drive against narcotics will continue in the future and all necessary steps will be taken to eliminate the illegal trade from the district.
PNN
