Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail pleas of two accused in an alleged illegal stocking and transportation of Phensedyl cough syrup case.
Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar of the Lucknow bench passed the order on separate bail applications filed by the two accused Vibhor Rana and Vishal Singh.
The court had earlier granted them interim bail on December 18. Following the rejection of their regular bail pleas, both accused will have to surrender.
Opposing the bail applications, Additional Advocate General Anoop Trivedi submitted that information had been received over several days that Phensedyl cough syrup and other drugs were being illegally stored for intoxicating purposes and transported to Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam and Bangladesh.
He told the court that on February 12, 2024, the Uttar Pradesh government constituted a joint team of the Special Task Force and the Food Safety and Drug Administration to probe the matter.
On April 8, 2024, the STF received specific inputs that a truck loaded with cough syrup was being transported from Transport Nagar in Lucknow to Cooch Behar in West Bengal.
The STF intercepted the truck on Sultanpur Road and seized 52 cartons of cough syrup. During questioning, the truck driver, Dharmendra Kumar, allegedly disclosed the involvement of Rana and Singh in the case.
Subsequently, the STF arrested Rana and his associates from Saharanpur on November 11, 2025, the AAG said, adding that there was ample evidence against the accused and they were not entitled to bail.
Authorities in Uttar Pradesh are also carrying out a wider probe into the alleged illegal stocking and trade of regulated codeine-based syrups within and outside the state, with officials estimating that the racket runs into hundreds of crores of rupees.
