14,100 cough syrup bottles seized in Araria

Araria: A special team, comprising SDPO Md Kasim and drug inspector Udai Ballav, seized at least 14,100 bottles of cough syrup worth Rs 11.5 lakh from a house at Om Nagar in Araria on Monday night.
"We recovered 140 cartons of cough syrup and arrested one Tuntun Poddar," said SP Sudheer Kumar Porika on Tuesday and added the cartons belonged to a local stockist Alok Jain, who was absconding after the raid.
"An FIR, under different sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, has been lodged against Jain and Tuntun," Porika told TOI and assured that the drug mafia network operating in the district would soon be busted.
Ever since the prohibition on the sale and consumption of liquor in the state, people have started using cough syrups containing codeine which is banned and cannot be sold without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner.
"Cough syrups are being smuggled to Nepal and huge stocks sold illegally in local markets after the ban," said sources.