Allahabad HC dismisses pleas seeking stay on arrests in codeine-based cough syrup case

The Allahabad High Court on Friday dismissed writ petitions that challenged the FIRs lodged in the codeine-based cough syrup case and sought a stay on arrests in the matter. The order was passed by a two-judge bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Achal Sachdev.

The writ petitions were filed by Virendra Lal Verma and others, seeking a stay on arrest and quashing of the FIR lodged against them at Varanasi as well as at other police stations in the State. After hearing Additional Advocate General Anoop Trivedi and the counsels for petitioners, the court observed, “Definitely, we find that transferring of Phensedyl cough syrup was being done from Jharkhand to Uttar Pradesh by e-way bills which were not in the proper category of carrying of drugs, but were for the purposes of carrying of snacks and namkeen.”

“We have also come across the FIRs stating that the medicinal articles were brought from Jharkhand after concealing them in various grains, namely wheat and rice. Not only that, we also find that the persons who were dealing with those articles, namely Phensedyl cough syrup, were having fabricated citizenship cards, Aadhaar cards,” the court added.

If fabrication was there, as is evident from the FIR, then definitely cases of the petitioners would be covered under the various other sections of BNS as well, the bench observed. “We also find that quite often the sub-stockists to whom the various main stockists were transferring the articles were either not in existence or were such stockists who were not maintaining their stock registers properly,” it added.

The court further said, “We are also of the view that under section 32(3) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, the petitioners could be prosecuted under any other law for any act or omission which constitutes an offence against this chapter. Also, Section 80 of the NDPS Act gives the liberty to prosecute under the NDPS Act along with the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.”

The enormity of the entire matter has to be investigated, and therefore, no question of interference in the FIRs arises, it said. The bench further said, “Even though we have not interfered with the case, the investigating agencies would, with all sagaciousness, investigate the case and would not in any manner at any point of time indulge in any malicious activity.”

“With these observations, all the writ petitions stand dismissed,” it said.

The Uttar Pradesh Government set up an SIT to probe the illegal storage and distribution of codeine-based cough syrups across the State. The SIT, headed by an IG-rank officer and including Food and Drug Safety Authority (FDSA) officials, has been tasked with examining financial transactions, tracing the diversion of medicines, and connecting all leads emerging from the accused persons.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has clarified that no casualties have been reported in the state due to the codeine-laced syrups. DGP Rajeev Krishna said earlier that the investigation has so far exposed a network of major “super-stockists” allegedly involved in diverting highly-regulated codeine-laced medicines.

Three of the five key ‘super-stockists’ — Bhola Jaiswal from Varanasi, Vibhor Rana from Saharanpur, and Saurabh Tyagi from Ghaziabad — have been arrested, and action is underway against two other accused. So far, around 3.5 lakh bottles of cough syrup, valued at approximately Rs 4.5 crore, have been seized, and 32 people associated with the illegal trade have been taken into custody.

The probe also revealed evidence of consignments being trafficked across the India-Nepal and India-Bangladesh borders. Authorities are verifying financial transactions and money trails linked to the network, with the ED involved in parallel investigations.