Doctor held for allegedly supplying drugs to Ferozepur jail inmates

Ferozepur: A doctor posted at the Ferozepur central prison was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Punjab police from his residence for distributing illegally banned drugs to the inmates.

The doctor has been identified as Dr. Shashi Bhushan, a resident of Ferozepur city. He was posted at the central jail hospital since November 2021 and would secretly distribute banned narcotics to the inmates while providing treatment to them. It was revealed that he also charged a price for the substances.

While arresting the doctor from his residence, the police recovered 8-gram heroin, 14 cigarette lighters, used silver paper, and a half-burned ten rupees currency note.

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According to HT, the matter came to the focus of STF officials after they received a tip-off about the illegal activities he has done in the past related to the drugs. The police monitored the doctor for several days. At last, they arrested the doctor after getting an opportunity to nab him red-handed.

However, the case has been marked in history since this is for the first time a doctor was involved in drug supplying case and was allegedly arrested under Sections 21 and 22 of IPC and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

STF assistant inspector general of police (AIG) Sandeep Kumar told Face 2 News, "The doctor himself was allegedly a drug addict besides he was providing drugs to the various criminals lodged in the jail. Some jail inmates including Arshdeep alias Arshi, Sunny Prabhakar, Mama, and others used to help him."

"For the last 15 days, the doctor was on leave. The matter came to the fore when one of the accused Arshdeep was taken on a production warrant to Ludhiana in an attempt to murder case. When he was taken to Ludhiana, the accused seemed to be completely intoxicated. During questioning, he revealed Bhushan's conduct. After that, he was put under surveillance and held today with material evidence."

"Being a doctor, he was probably not subjected to intense physical search before entering the jail at the time of duty. Taking advantage of the practice, Bhushan smuggled in drugs and mobile phones. Initial probe says the accused were provided drugs that were injectable, oral and used through smoke," AIG added.

In response to the incident, Senior Medical Officer Dr. Satish Kumar said "We have not received any official information regarding the incident yet. As soon as the official information will be received, the departmental action shall also be initiated."

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