Sambalpur: Excise department officials here seized 2,400 bottles of banned cough syrup while conducting raids at Sindurapanka and Choudhury Chhak area under Sadar police limits in this district, Wednesday. Four persons including the mastermind were arrested in this regard.
The four arrested persons were identified as Manoj Kumar Pruseth, 39, resident of Ladukhai village, Jitu Sahu, 30, resident of Goshala area, Gurumel Singh, 55, resident of Tekanaka in Nagpur district of Maharastra and Bijinder Singh, 38, resident of Pabarali village in Gurudaspur district of Punjab. Manoj is the mastermind. Police seized the mini truck along with cough syrup and a motorcycle from the possession of the accused. According to information provided by Additional Excise Superintendent Asit Mallick, the department got a tip-off about a truck with the consignment of banned cough syrup coming to Sambalpur from Kolkata.
Acting on the tip-off, the Excise sleuths of Sambalpur Sadar were waiting near Padiabahal on NH55 to catch the vehicle. While checking, a mini truck (MH 04-CT-0946) did not stop at the checkpoint and fled the scene. After chasing the vehicle, the excise sleuths managed to stop it near Choudhury Chhak around 5 am. While checking, they found a huge stock of the banned contraband along with some machinery inside the truck.
As the driver of the truck could not produce valid documents, the Excise sleuths seized the truck and arrested the truck driver along with the other three accused. The approximate cost of the seized cough syrup is estimated to be Rs 7 lakh, said Mallick. He said that the prime accused Manoj had been arrested earlier in the banned cough syrup smuggling case and many cases are pending against him in the court.