Manufacture, sale records of Paonta Sahib-based pharma unit being probed

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 25

With the Jammu-based team of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arresting a drug manufacturer of Paonta Sahib-based pharmaceutical unit for nefarious sale of codeine syrup, the state drug authorities have begun investigation into the matter.

After receipt of information from the NCB officials, a team headed by an assistant drugs licensing authority and comprising four drug inspectors was probing the records pertaining to the manufacture and sale of codeine syrup in the unit since yesterday.

The NCB team has arrested Neeraj Bhatia, one of the owners of codeine syrup manufacturing firm — Vidit Healthcare, Paonta Sahib.

An official of the drugs control administration said they were inspecting various records pertaining to the manufacture of codeine syrup at the unit.

As per the preliminary probe, codeine syrup was supplied to Delhi and it was being ascertained whether the said sale was as per the records available in the unit or if the consignment was diverted to an unauthorised market. The manufacturing firm is operational since more than a decade.

This case has once again brought the working of the state drug authorities under the scanner as several cases of unauthorised diversion of narcotic and psychotropic drugs have come to fore recently. In May, two such cases emerged from the Baddi industrial area, where psychotropic drugs were illegally diverted to Punjab.