The Lucknow unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on Friday morning at locations in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Jharkhand linked to Shubham Jaiswal, the main accused in the illegal cough syrup racket.
The ED initiated this investigation based on more than 30 FIRs registered over the past two months regarding the illegal trade of cough syrup.
Raids Across Key Cities
According to reports, the ED team targeted premises in Lucknow, Saharanpur, Varanasi, and Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh; Ranchi in Jharkhand; and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. It is suspected that these locations were used to stockpile illegal cough syrup, which was then supplied to nearby cities and towns for sale.
Health Risks And Key Suspects
The case has remained in the headlines following reports of several children dying due to the consumption of this cough syrup. Shubham Jaiswal is considered the mastermind of this racket, assisted by his associates Alok Singh and Amit Singh. Alok Singh has already been arrested in connection with the case.
Multi-Crore Codeine Racket
Notably, over the last two months, the illegal storage, purchase, and sale of codeine-based cough syrup have been rampant in several districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Varanasi, Sonbhadra, Saharanpur and Ghaziabad. This has resulted in an illicit trade worth thousands of crores of rupees.
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Main Accused Flees To Dubai
SIT Formed Following the exposure of the racket, the main accused, Shubham Jaiswal, fled the country and is reportedly hiding in Dubai. However, 32 individuals, including his father Bhola Prasad, have already been arrested in connection with the case. Additionally, the Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct a thorough probe into the matter.