Kolkata : The Special Task Force (STF) of state police nabbed two persons and seized more than 6000 bottles of phensedyl bottles on Wednesday night at Jangalpur in Sankrail of Howrah, near Kona Expressway.
The duo identified as Dinesh Kumar of Fatehpur, Bahrampur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Rajesh Roy alias Kalu of Baishali, Bihar who presently resides at Ultadanga Main Road was nabbed while loading the illegal consignment to a truck.
According to sources, acting on a tip-off STF officials conducted a raid at the Jangalpur area where the arrested duo was loading the consignment in a truck bearing Bengal registration from another truck bearing UP registration.
While transferring the boxes containing the cough syrup bottles, they were caught red-handed.
During the search of the trucks, a total of 6600 bottles of phensedyl worth about Rs 30 lakh were recovered.
A case has been registered at the Sankrail Police Station in connection with the recovery and arrests made.
Though phensedyl is a medicine which is legal in other states but it is banned in Bengal as a preventive measure for putting a leash on its smuggling.
One of the ingredients of phensedyl is codeine phosphate, which is a narcotic drug. Selling the said cough syrup without a valid prescription is illegal and the same is treated as drug smuggling.
The price of phensedyl increases up to Rs 1500 in Bangladesh depending upon the location which is quite cheap in India.
