Illegal opioid network busted, says Punjab Police

Chandigarh, Nov 9 (PTI) The Punjab Police busted an interstate network of illegal opioid manufacturing and supply units from pharmaceutical factories based in Delhi and Haryana, a top police officer said on Thursday.

Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said the development came after a three-month investigation of backward and forward linkages carried out by the Fatehgarh Sahib Police into the arrest of local drug peddler Gaurav Singh.

Singh was nabbed after the recovery of 44 Leegesic injections and 44 Avil injections.

In an official statement, Yadav said that following the trail after the arrest of a supplier, the police managed to trace and arrest Sumit Agarwal of Delhi -- the manufacturer of illegal pharma.

Agarwal is the owner of Paksons Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, which has units in Rohini in Delhi and Bahadurgarh in Haryana.

The police also raided the pharma factory in Bahadurgarh in the presence of the local drugs inspector and seized numerous illegal trading, financial and transport documents along with approximately Rs 6 lakh worth of unlabelled injections.

This seizure is in addition to 3.24 lakh tablets, capsules, injections and vials and Rs 2.20 lakh in cash already recovered in the case, Yadav added.

So far, police teams have arrested seven people, including Agarwal and Singh, in this case. The five other arrested accused have been identified as Mohammad Arbaaz, Mohammad Salman, Mohammad Sahbez, Rakesh Kumar and Ghanshyam Sharma.

Inspector General of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, accompanied by Senior Superintendent of Police (Fatehgarh Sahib) Dr Ravjot Kaur Grewal, said the police raided illegal chemists, pharmacies and godowns following Singh's arrest, leading to the nabbing of three suppliers -- Arbaaz, Salman and Sahbez.

During their interrogation, it came to light that they were purchasing the drugs from Agra, he added.

The police arrested Kumar, who owned an illegal drugs godown in Agra.

Kumar revealed that he was in contact with Sharma of Loni Dehat in Ghaziabad. Sharma was a wholesaler of drugs and had his own medical agency, said Bhullar.

Sharma was nabbed on November 2, leading to the arrest of Agarwal. PTI CHS SZM