Drugs in name of medicine: STF RAID find Heroin being administered to addicts in chemist shop

Peddler arrested from a chemist shop.

Ludhiana: A recent raid at a chemist shop led to a discovery of drug peddling racket, where a man running the chemist was found to be administering additive substances such as heroin to the addicts in a separate room inside the shop.

In a major crackdown, the Special Task Force (STF) unit in Ludhiana has held a man who was associated with illegal sale of intoxicating pills, heroin and injections. According to a recent media report, the accused was running a drug peddling nexus from a chemist shop in Gisapura area for more than a year.

The case relates to a man who is a resident of Maha Singh Nagar. The accused works in a medical store namely ‘Khungar Medical Hall’. Following a tip-off by the STF sleuths along with a team of Health Department, the STF team raided the store.

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A shocking revelation came to light wherein the accused had set up a separate section inside the medical store where he used to administer heroin to his customers at Rs 500 to Rs 700 per injection. It is further learnt that the accused had four regular female customers aged between 25-30 years, who used to purchase banned tablets and capsules in dozens on a daily basis.

The license of the chemist store was in the name of one Pawan Kumar of Makkar Colony while the store was being run by the accused who is just a twelfth pass.

Zonal Licensing Authority, Drugs, Ludhiana Dinesh Gupta told TOI that, “A person can run a chemist store on someone else’s license provided he has a pharmacist degree. Another person can also be hired who has the degree of a pharmacist and that person has to be present in the store. In this case, accused has done just Class XII and is not authorised to run a chemist store. So the licence holder is equally guilty. The department is issuing a show-cause notice to licence holder Pawan Kumar for explanation. Further action would be decided on the basis on explanation given by him.”

During the investigation, cops found that the accused was shown as the employee of Pawan Kumar in the records of the Health Department. However, the accused used to pay Rs 3,000 as monthly rent to Pawan to operate the store.

The STF team has seized 2,042 banned medicines, 40g heroin and 20 vials filled with heroin from the accused. Moreover;

Box- Recovery

• Banned tablets, Onerex; 20 bottles of 100ml


• Lomotil; 120 tablets

Medicines to be sold with doctor’s prescription -

• Spas- Perivon; 192 capsules


• Rimdol- 50; 300 capsules


• Altis 0.5; 330 tablets


• Clovidol100 SR; 630 tablets

Man held with 460g heroin

On further interrogation, the accused confessed that he himself used to inject heroin in his body. A man from Chandigarh used to come to his store to deliver the drugs.

Commenting on the matter, Inspector Harbans Singh, in charge, Ludhiana unit of STF, told TOI, “The accused has confessed that about 60 to 70 customers, including women, used to come to his shop who would take two to three dozen bottles or strips of intoxicating tablets. There were four women who were regular customers. The accused has also confessed that he used to procure intoxicants from Chandigarh-based persons. A man from Chandigarh used to come to his store to deliver the drugs. He used to get heroin from three city-based peddlers and we are on the job to trace them.”

The inspector further added, “The role of shop owner is also being probed. He would face action if we find any evidence against him.”

In connection with the matter, the STF team has arrested another Hardeep Singh Sidhu of Sahnewal with 460g heroin worth Rs 2.12 crore in the international market. He has been into drug peddling for the past four years. Inspector Harbans Singh, STF Ludhiana in charge, told both Hardeep and the accused were known to each other. The police are verifying if the medical store owner was involved with the accused.