The Enforcement Directorate said on Friday that it has been conducting raids at four locations in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Barnala and Mumbai in connection with a money-laundering investigation linked with the illegal sale of Buprenorphine/Naloxone by 22 private de-addiction centres in Punjab.
These centres are owned by Dr Amit Bansal, who was arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in January and faces multiple cases registered by Punjab Police for illegally selling these medicines crucial for managing withdrawal symptoms. He was arrested following complaints of the illegal sale of drugs by these deaddiction centres in the open market.
“During investigation, it was found that Dr Bansal misused his de-addiction centres in Punjab and was involved in the illegal sale of de-addiction drugs. A Ludhiana-based government drug inspector, Roopinder Kaur, who assisted him by forwarding fudged inspection reports related to pilferage of medicines from his hospitals, has also been covered in the search operations,” a senior ED official said.
The raids are also being carried out at a Mumbai-based pharma company, Rusan Pharma Limited, which a prime manufacturer of BNX (Buprenorphine/Naloxone) used for treating addiction.
Following his arrest by VB, the state health department suspended the licences of all 22 centres of Dr Bansal on January 13. The ED said these de-addiction centres were to provide the medicine to patients admitted. “This medication, meant for rehabilitation of drug addicts, were being misused for new kind of drug abuse when taken in excess quantity,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}Following his arrest by VB, the state health department suspended the licences of all 22 centres of Dr Bansal on January 13. The ED said these de-addiction centres were to provide the medicine to patients admitted. “This medication, meant for rehabilitation of drug addicts, were being misused for new kind of drug abuse when taken in excess quantity,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}The VB FIR said that drug inspector Roopinder Kaur from Ludhiana had colluded with Dr Bansal. During an inspection of one of his centres, a discrepancy of 4,610 missing tablets was found, but her report to the directorate of health and family welfare mentioned 4,000 missing tablets, ostensibly to protect Dr Bansal from legal repercussions.
In 2023, then Jalandhar deputy commissioner Jaspreet Singh initiated an inquiry against Dr Bansal for misappropriation of BNX from his Nakodar-based drug-de-addiction centre.
A case was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and other Sections, including 465 (for making forged documents), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged), 201 (tampering of evidence) and 381 (theft) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
In a report submitted by the inquiry committee, it was found that there is no proof of the return of 1.44 lakh narcotic tablets, Addnok, to Rusan Pharma Limited, while there was a difference of 1,000 such tablets in the stock register, 1,000 tablets of buprenorphine tablets ‘Buprisan-N’ and 96 other narcotic tablets were missing from the centre records.
The committee found suspected signatures on 102 files that don’t appear to be of the same person to whom the tablets were issued. Moreover, there are no signatures on 154 files created for ‘non-opioid users’.
In April, police registered a case in Patiala against Dr Bansal under the NDPS Act, and Sections 336 (endangering human life) and 340(2) (forget of documents and electronic records) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for the illegal sale of 31,000 narcotic pills.