Rs 38-crore assets of cough syrup mafia Shubham Jaiswal to be seized: Varanasi Police

The Varanasi police are preparing to seize assets belonging to Shubham Jaiswal, who carries a Rs 50,000 reward and a look-out notice in connection with the illegal trade of codeine-laced cough syrup, officials said on Thursday.The Special Investigation Team identified assets worth about Rs 38 crore belonging to Shubham Jaiswal and his family and placed the findings before the court.

The Varanasi police are preparing to seize assets belonging to Shubham Jaiswal, who carries a Rs 50,000 reward and a look-out notice in connection with the illegal trade of codeine-laced cough syrup, officials said on Thursday.

''The Special Investigation Team identified assets worth about Rs 38 crore belonging to Shubham Jaiswal and his family and placed the findings before the court. Based on this, the court issued a notice seeking details of the properties within a week,'' Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal said.

If the required details are not given within the stipulated time, the properties will be sealed, Agrawal added.

Under the law, any asset that is acquired through criminal activities can be seized during the course of the investigation itself, he said. The SIT is examining diversion of medicines, financial transactions and links among the accused, with officials citing evidence of super-stockists and cross-border trafficking to Nepal and Bangladesh.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, during the assembly session on Monday, had said that the cases related to the illegal diversion of syrup are being taken up under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Adityanath had clarified that codeine-based syrup is not manufactured in Uttar Pradesh, and the state only has stockists and wholesalers. Production takes place in states like Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

The death cases that came to light were reported from other states and were linked to a syrup manufactured in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Calling the matter one of illegal diversion, not adulteration, the chief minister said wholesalers from districts including Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur were involved in diverting the syrup to states and countries where prohibition exists, leading to its misuse.

The state government had registered 79 cases, named 225 people and arrested 78 accused, while raids have been conducted at 134 firms, he said. Uttar Pradesh Police is probing an alleged illegal network involved in the storage and distribution of highly regulated codeine-laced cough syrups across the state.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)