12 medical store owners, 2 others booked in multi-crore codeine syrup scam

Written By : Ruchika Sharma Published On 2025-11-24T15:25:07+05:30 | Updated On 24 Nov 2025 3:25 PM IST

Jaunpur: In a major crackdown on the illegal trade of codeine-based cough syrup, an FIR has been lodged against 12 medical store owners and two others, officials said on Sunday.

A drug department investigation revealed that over 37 lakh bottles of codeine syrup worth around Rs 57 crore were shown as sold using forged documents across more than a dozen medical stores.

As per PTI, Superintendent of Police (City) Ayush Srivastava said the case was lodged on the complaint of Drug Inspector Rajat Kumar Pandey.

The accused include alleged mastermind Shubham Jaiswal and his father Bhola Prasad have been booked for fraud and criminal conspiracy.

The supply, sourced from a Ranchi-based firm, was routed on paper to several UP districts but was actually smuggled to states like Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for illegal sale.

The racket surfaced after a truck carrying the syrup was seized in Ghaziabad.

Following this, the FSDA (Food Safety and Drug Administration) UP conducted a week-long drive from November 12-19, uncovering large-scale manipulation of billing and records.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Kaustubh has formed a three-member SIT to investigate further.

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Source : with inputs

Ruchika Sharma

Ruchika Sharma joined Medical Dialogue as an Correspondent for the Business Section in 2019. She covers all the updates in the Pharmaceutical field, Policy, Insurance, Business Healthcare, Medical News, Health News, Pharma News, Healthcare and Investment. She has completed her B.Com from Delhi University and then pursued postgraduation in M.Com. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in Contact no. 011-43720751