CM saying no one died in UP due to codein-based cough syrup completely false: Akhilesh

Lucknow, Dec 23 (PTI) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday rejected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's claim that there had been no deaths in the state due to codeine-based cough syrup, calling it an "outright lie" and accusing the BJP of misleading the public.

He alleged that the BJP government was trying to deflect attention from what he described as a massive scam involving poisonous and narcotic codeine cough syrup.

In a post on X, Yadav said, "Saying that no one has died due to syrup is a completely false statement. The BJP is a regime of untruth." "By declaring a token reward of a few thousand rupees on a person allegedly involved in a scam worth billions, the Uttar Pradesh BJP government should not make a mockery of its own role in the deadly codeine cough syrup racket," Yadav said.

The former chief minister further claimed that those involved in the alleged racket were rewarded with vehicles worth crores of rupees, and alleged that the government had failed to provide details of these vehicles despite repeated demands by the Samajwadi Party.

"Those who can distribute vehicles worth crores as rewards in this racket, there is no limit to how much they can spend to suppress news about themselves," he said, adding sarcastically whether the same vehicles were later taken away by bulldozers.

Yadav also accused the ruling party of repeatedly lying on issues related to children's deaths and drug addiction.

Referring to alleged discrepancies in death figures during the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, he said that a government which had lied about death data on the occasion of a large religious gathering could not be expected to speak the truth about deaths linked to spurious and narcotic cough syrup during its tenure.

"Saying that no one died due to syrup is a blatant lie. The BJP is the power of falsehood. This is highly condemnable," Yadav said.

In his address in the Assembly, Chief Minister Adityanath had on Monday strongly rebutted allegations over "deaths" allegedly due to the consumption of fake medicines and codeine syrup, asserting that no such case has come to the notice of the state government so far.

Adityanath said that evidence had emerged linking the accused in the codeine cough syrup case to the Samajwadi Party (SP).

He said that cases related to illegal diversion of the syrup were being pursued under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, and the state government successfully defended its stand in court.

Launching a sharp attack on the Akhilesh Yadav-led party, Adityanath alleged that the largest wholesaler involved in the codeine syrup case, first arrested by the special task force (STF) in 2016, was issued a licence when the SP government was in power.

A reward of Rs 50,000 has been announced for the arrest of the kingpin of the codeine syrup gang, Shubham Jaiswal, and a lookout notice has also been issued by the police.

Adityanath clarified that codeine syrup is not manufactured in Uttar Pradesh and the state only has stockists and wholesalers. Its production takes place in states like Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The death cases that came to light were reported from other states and were linked to a syrup manufactured in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Calling the matter one of illegal diversion, not adulteration, the chief minister said wholesalers from districts including Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur were involved in diverting the syrup to states and countries where prohibition exists, leading to its misuse.

Such medicines cannot be consumed without medical advice, especially by children, he said, adding that the syrup was commonly prescribed by doctors for cough. PTI ABN ABN KSS KSS