ED registers money laundering case in UP cough syrup racket

New Delhi, Dec 3 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case in connection with an organised racket involved in illegal manufacturing, storing and selling of cough syrup brands in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

The agency has taken cognisance of a UP Police special task force (STF) FIR and pressed sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to file an ECIR.

An enforcement case information report (ECIR) is the ED equivalent of a police FIR.

The case pertains to alleged illegal manufacturing, storage and sale of codeine- based cough syrup (CBCS) like Phensedyl in UP and also for cross-border smuggling to Bangladesh, the officials said.

Phensedyl is abused as a intoxicant in Bangladesh and the Border Security Force (BSF) seizes huge consignments of the drug, meant for smuggling, every day at the international front.

The ED has also summoned an alleged prime accused of the case, Shubham Jaiswal, to appear before it on December 8 in Lucknow for questioning.

Officials suspect Jaiswal may have left the country.

Jaiswal's father Bhola Prasad Jaiswal was arrested by the UP Police from the Kolkata airport while he was reportedly trying to flee the country.

The state police had seized 1,19,675 bottles of some banned cough syrup brands from two container trucks on October 18, valued at around Rs 3.5 crore, Sonbhadra Superintendent of Police Abhishek Verma told reporters on Wednesday.

In related actions, 13,400 bottles were recovered in Jharkhand, and during a joint operation with Ghaziabad police on the night of November 3, bottles of CBCS worth Rs 3.4 crore was seized.

Verma said investigation has found that the Jaiswals and some others were "illegally" running the racket through fake billing in the name of Shaili Traders, Ranchi.

It was detected that Rs 25 crore worth of "bogus" transactions were being done in this trade across several districts, including Bhadohi, Chandauli, Varanasi and Sonbhadra, with many firms found non-existent. PTI NES KVK KVK