Kanpur: The crime branch arrested Sumit Kesarwani, a resident of Dev Nagar and operator of Balaji medical store, in connection with illegal trafficking of codeine-containing cough syrup. Police said a reward of Rs25,000 was announced on him.Police investigation revealed that the accused purchased codeine-containing cough syrup from Idika Lab Sciences in Lucknow. Police said he sold syrup costing Rs45-48 for Rs150-160 to fulfil addiction needs.A report was filed at Sarojininagar police station in Lucknow against Idika Lab for illegal storage. Police said the wanted medical store operator supplied codeine-containing cough syrup in bulk to 74 medical stores around the city. Police said that despite the medical store operator’s retail licence being suspended in 2024, he still supplied the syrup.DCP crime Shravan Kumar Singh said that in the case of illegal storage of codeine-containing syrup, a raid was conducted by the drug inspector on Oct 12, 2025 at Balaji Medical Store located in Devnagar in the Raipurwa police station area. He said it was found that the sale of drugs violated the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, with codeine-containing cough syrup being supplied without valid records, stock register and doctor’s prescription.The investigation also revealed that the medical store operator purchased 55,671 codeine-containing cough syrups and 1.2 lakh Alprazolam tablets through manipulation in billing and transactions and through illegal means. Of these, 2,100 bottles and 10,800 tablets were seized by the drug inspector, and a case was registered against Sumit Kesarwani at Raipurwa police station.Police said the accused was absconding and a reward of Rs25,000 was announced on him, after which the crime branch searched for him. Singh said two cases were registered against the accused in Kidwai Nagar and Raipurwa. During interrogation, police said it came to light that the accused purchased 228 bottles of Jijsirex syrup and medicines worth a total of Rs1.59 lakh from Vinod Agrawal, the kingpin of the codeine-containing syrup business who was sent to jail.Police said the accused purchased medicines from Arpik Pharma Manufacturing Company and supplied them wholesale and retail in the city. The investigation revealed that the accused deliberately deleted digital data to affect the investigation. Police said the accused was sent to jail.
