Uttar Pradesh cough syrup case: ED conducts raids at 25 locations across three states, main accused on run

Two days after the Uttar Pradesh government formed a three-member high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an IG-rank officer to probe the illegal sale, storage, and trafficking of codeine-based cough syrup, the Enforcement Directorate (ED)conducted raids at multiple locations across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Gujarat on Friday.

Twenty five locations that include Lucknow, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Saharanpur, Ranchi and Ahmedabad are being searched in the illegal cough syrup case related to the main accused, Shubham Jaiswal, associates Alok singh, Amit singh and other cough syrup manufacturers who fraudulently provided supplies of cough syrup for illegal trading, and CA Vishnu Aggarwal. The searches at the premises began at 7: 30 am by the ED.

Main accused absconding

Shubham Jaiswal , the main accused in the case is absconding and is believed to be hiding in Dubai. His father Bhola Prasad has been arrested, including 32 other people by Uttar Pradesh Police.

Enforcement Case Information Report, an internal document for money laundering investigations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was registered on the basis of more than 30 FIR recorded in previous two months in various districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow Varanasi, Sonbhadra Saharanpur, Ghaziabad.

Earlier case of contaminated syrup

Earlier in October, 24 children had lost their lives after consuming toxic cough syrups in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district.

Three contaminated cough syrups manufactured in India were linked to the deaths. The cough syrups in question were Coldrif (Sresan Pharmaceutical), Respifresh TR (Rednex Pharmaceuticals), and ReLife (Shape Pharma).

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global health advisory after the incident came to light.

The WHO in its health advisory said that the three cough syrups contained toxic levels of diethylene glycol — nearly 500 times the permissible limit — and warned that the products posed significant, potentially life-threatening risks