In a significant breakthrough in Uttar Pradesh's sprawling multi-state codeine-based cough syrup smuggling investigation, Kolkata Police on Sunday apprehended Bhola Prasad, the father of absconding pharmaceutical dealer Shubham Jaiswal, at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.
The arrest came after Sonbhadra Police alerted their Kolkata counterparts about intelligence suggesting Bhola was attempting to flee the country via Kolkata, with onward travel planned to Thailand and then Singapore. A team of Sonbhadra police has already reached Kolkata to take custody of Bhola Prasad and bring him back to Uttar Pradesh for further interrogation.
The Criminal Network Uncovered
A senior UP STF officer revealed that Bhola Prasad faces four criminal cases across Sonbhadra, Varanasi, Ghazipur, and Jaunpur districts. He was specifically wanted for his role in the illegal sale of restricted pharmaceuticals, particularly codeine-based cough syrup.
Bhola, who owns Shaili Traders, along with his son Shubham, came under investigators' scrutiny after massive discrepancies were uncovered in the supply chain of codeine-laced syrups. The case initially came to light following a detailed probe by drug inspector Rajesh Kumar Maurya, who inspected two medical stores run by two brothers in Sonbhadra.
During the investigation, authorities discovered that Shaili Traders, operating from Ranchi for the past four years, had supplied an astonishing 7.53 lakh bottles (7.53 crore ml) of codeine-based cough syrup to M/s Maa Kripa Medical and M/s Shiviksha Pharma. The enormous volume raised immediate red flags, especially since no matching stock records, storage evidence, or legitimate sales documentation existed at the medical shops.
The Interstate Smuggling Operation
An FIR was subsequently lodged at Robertsganj Kotwali against Bhola along with the two pharmacy operators who allegedly facilitated the illegal sales. Investigators believe this syndicate was part of a larger interstate smuggling network supplying cough syrup to regions stretching from eastern UP to neighboring states.
Investigators in Uttar Pradesh have identified Varanasi-based dealer Shubham Jaiswal as the alleged kingpin of a sprawling, cross-border narcotics supply syndicate built on fake firms, forged documentation, and interstate routing. According to police, Jaiswal—along with his now-arrested father Bhola—engineered a high-volume pipeline that moved codeine-laced cough syrup from storage hubs in Ghaziabad and Varanasi to Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
The network used multiple shell companies to disguise illegal consignments as legitimate pharmaceutical trade, creating an elaborate web of deception that spanned several states and international borders.
The Investigation Intensifies
The crackdown on this network intensified after the tragic death of 24 children in Madhya Pradesh due to toxic cough syrup, triggering statewide raids in UP. During one such raid in Sonbhadra on October 18, police recovered 12,000 bottles of codeine syrup concealed inside snack cartons.
Truck drivers later told investigators that the consignment originated from one of Jaiswal's front operations and was routed via his Ghaziabad contacts. Subsequent probes uncovered the internal machinery of the network: at least six shell firms existed only on paper; dozens of transport and billing documents were forged; and the Ranchi-based entity, Shaili Traders, was used to generate fake invoices to facilitate interstate movement.
Police investigation revealed that Jaiswal sourced the syrup from a factory in Himachal Pradesh, stockpiled it in Ghaziabad, and pushed it through Agra, Lucknow, and Varanasi, before sending consignments deeper into the eastern corridor and across international borders.
A senior officer involved in the investigation noted, "Before Covid-19, Jaiswal was a small-time medical supplier. During the pandemic, he sensed rising demand for restricted drugs, tied up with a local strongman, and rapidly expanded his operations across states."
Multiple FIRs have since been registered against Jaiswal and Bhola in Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Jaunpur, and other districts as the investigation continues to uncover the full extent of this sophisticated drug smuggling operation.
