Two brothers held in Lucknow for running illegal cough syrup, narcotic medicine racket: UP STF

Lucknow, Dec 11 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday arrested two brothers wanted for allegedly operating an illegal trade and storage network of Fensidyl cough syrup and other codeine-based narcotic medicines, officials said.

In a statement, the STF said the arrests were made in Lucknow and the accused were identified as Abhishek Sharma and Shubham Sharma, residents of Kapil Vihar under the Saharanpur Sadar Bazar police station area. They were arrested around 4:30 am near Tedhi Pulia on Alambagh-Mawaiya road, it said.

Two mobile phones and 31 documents linked to a fictitious pharmaceutical firm were recovered from them.

According to the STF, it received information that Abhishek, a wanted accused and Delhi-based distributor of Abbott Company products, and his brother Shubham had arrived in Lucknow and were headed to Hazratganj after getting off a bus. Acting on the input, the STF team, along with the local police, intercepted and arrested the two.

During interrogation, Abhishek told investigators that since 2019, he had been working with G R Trading, owned by Vishal Singh and Vibhor Rana, where he initially handled loading, unloading and record maintenance.

He alleged that the owners procured sensitive cough syrup in bulk through fake firms and diverted it as narcotics to traffickers. The supply network, he claimed, extended from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, up to Bangladesh.

Abhishek told the investigators that a chartered accountant, Arun Singhal, helped create bogus firms and fake purchase-sale documents. Singhal reportedly created two firms under the name "Sachin Medicos" in Saharanpur and Bhagwanpur (Roorkee) using identities of Bittu Kumar and Sachin Kumar, the statement said.

The STF said the gang showed paper sales of Fensidyl to firms in Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh and then re-purchased the stock on paper under the name of Sachin Medicos, finally routing it to the traffickers using fake e-way bills.

Several consignments were seized in 2021, and Vibhor was arrested in a Malda (West Bengal) case in 2022, it said.

Abhishek further claimed that after Singhal left the firm, he began managing "Maruti Medicos", renamed from Sachin Medicos in December 2023, in Bhagwanpur. The firm became Abbott's super distributor for Uttarakhand in January 2024, and he handled all billing and banking under another person's name, the STF said.

The accused also disclosed that a Delhi-based firm, A V Pharmaceuticals, was created in partnership with one Pappan Yadav, but its operations were managed by associates of Vishal and Vibhor.

The STF said legal proceedings are underway in connection with a previous case registered at Sushant Golf City police station.

Meanwhile, Shubham told investigators that he studied up to class 12 and worked in Dubai as a port operations officer before returning to India to pursue opportunities abroad. He said that after meeting Vishal and Vibhor through his brother, a firm named Shri Balaji Sanjivani was created in his name using his documents.

He said the gang carried out initial transactions through Maruti Medicos, later securing an Abbott code to route Fensidyl supplies via B N Pharmaceuticals to his firm. He claimed he was paid around Rs 1 lakh per month and received about Rs 8 lakh over eight months, mostly working as a driver for the accused masterminds.

The STF said Shubham also confirmed that Fensidyl consignments were supplied to another person in Varanasi and later to a firm in Ranchi that held Abbott's super distribution rights.

The accused brothers have also named two associates based in West Bengal who were allegedly part of the trafficking chain, and evidence collection is underway, the STF said. PTI KIS DIV DIV