Truck carrying banned cough syrup seized in Lucknow, driver arrested

The UP Special Task Force seized a truck carrying 52 cartons of banned Phensedyl cough syrup meant to be supplied to West Bengal, and arrested the driver near Ahmamau underpass on Shaheed Path, under the Sushant Golf City police station limits of Lucknow, on Monday, said senior police officials, here, on Tuesday.
In a press note shared with the media, senior STF officials said that the cough syrup was loaded from Transport Nagar in Lucknow at the behest of one Robin Singh of Badarpur, New Delhi. They said that the truck driver, identified as Dharmendra Kumar Vishwakarma, said that Robin Singh met him in Agra while he was bringing some sanitary products from Bahadurgarh, Haryana and asked to deliver the product loaded in Lucknow to West Bengal.
The STF officials said that Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry banned the manufacture and sale of 350 fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs, including Phensedyl and Corex, due to irrational use of these products. They said the nexus behind the cough syrup supply used to send these banned products to West Bengal and Assam and earn hefty profits.
They said the drugs administration officials have been informed about the seizure and they are further probing the nexus. They said the truck driver, however, has been booked under different Indian Penal Code sections of fraud and forgery as well as sections of Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940.