Bhubaneswar: In a major crackdown on the growing menace of drug peddling across Odisha, Excise department officials arrested a man on charges of illegal sale of cough syrups while a team of Special Task Force (STF) and Commissionerate Police raided key areas in Bhubaneswar today. 

This is the second time the accused individual Kulamani Mishra has been arrested over alleged cough syrup trade. Mishra has also been accused of mixing Nitin tablets with the cough syrup. In October 2020, he had been nabbed by an STF team while heading from Naraj to CDA with Cough syrup.

Along with him, a drug store owner Dilip Sahu had also been arrested with 26 cartons of banned cough syrup worth Rs 4 lakh being seized from the toilet in his shop.  Mishra was arrested by a team comprising Inspector Dhiren Kumar Behera, Abani K Mahapatra, SI Dibyajyoti Satyaprakash, Bibhuti Pradhan, ASI Kishor Chandra Rout and Samir Kumar Patnaik. 

On the other hand, a joint team of STF and Commissionerate Police carried out surprise raids in key areas of the city housing educational institutions to crack down on illegal supply of narcotics to students. Paan shops and small kiosks near colleges and universities in KIIT Road were targeted on the suspicion of peddling drugs to the youth. 

STF officials said the searches were carried out after receiving tip-off on sale of ganja and brown sugar by small vendors in these areas. Large number of narcotics were seized and shopkeepers nabbed for selling ganja, brown sugar in cigarette packets and gutka sachets under code name 'GOGO'. 

Commenting on the raids, STF DSP said, "The raid was jointly conducted by STF and Infocity Police after receiving credible intelligence about sale of narcotics in shops, eateries and inconspicuos kiosks near universities. This is a preventive measure to curb growing addiction tendencies among the youth. We have held two three vendors for interrogation. They will be handed over to Infocity police."