Adulterated cough syrup case: Allahabad HC dismisses petitions seeking quashing of FIR, stay on arrest

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed writ petitions seeking to quash FIRs filed against two men for allegedly trafficking adulterated cough syrup and stay their arrests.

A bench comprising Justice Ajay Bhanot and Justice Garima Prasad said the petitioners were accused of committing a "crime against society that was "grave in nature" and passed the order to dismiss the two petitions.

Sintu alias Akhilesh Prakash and Akash Maurya are suspected kingpin of a large cross-border narcotics network and members of alleged illegal codeine-based cough syrup (CBCS) trafficking racket in Uttar Pradesh. The narcotics network was allegedly built on fake companies and forged documents.

According to the FIR lodged in Kotwali police station at Jaunpur, the two men allegedly managed a high-volume supply chain in transporting codeine-laced cough syrup from stock points in Ghaziabad, Varanasi to Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Multiple shell firms were allegedly used to disguise illegal consignments as legitimate pharmaceutical shipments. Multiple FIRs have been registered in the matter at Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Jaunpur, and other districts.