PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad High Court has rejected bail applications filed by two men accused in a sprawling codeine-based cough syrup racket, saying there is no basis for release given the scale of the alleged offence and recovery of huge quantities of the contraband.
A bench led by Justice Ashutosh Srivastava upheld a lower court’s finding that the accused were implicated after police intercepted them while loading 119 boxes containing 11,835 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup, which was allegedly being diverted from lawful channels into illegal stockpiles.
The FIR in the case was registered under multiple sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, after the large seizure in Rampur district.
During the hearing, the defence argued that both applicants were licensed medicine dealers who had purchased the cough syrup through valid invoices, had no previous criminal record, and that the drug inspector lacked authority to seize and seal samples. They also sought to place reliance on therapeutic exemptions under a 1985 government notification governing codeine preparations.
However, the court held that codeine and its salts are listed as manufactured drugs under the 1985 notification and are exempt from NDPS provisions only when strict conditions are met—specifically that the drug is established in “therapeutic practice” and meets precise content and concentration limits. The bench said those conditions were flagrantly violated, given the massive quantity recovered, and therefore the exemption did not apply.
“We are unable to form an opinion at this stage that the accused persons have not committed an offence,” the court observed, ruling that arguments over merits of the case could not be considered at the bail stage. It concluded there were no grounds to release the accused on bail while the investigation and trial proceed.
The case, titled Abdul Qadir and Another v. State of U.P., remains under active investigation with trial in progress.
