ED in Jalandhar yet to get details on diversion of 5 crore buprenorphine tablets

PATIALA: Investigations launched in February this year by the Jalandhar-based regional office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the alleged diversion of around five crore buprenorphine tablets, a scheduled drug, by private de-addiction centres in Punjab seems to have hit the bureaucratic stonewall.
The tablets worth around Rs 200 crore meant for addicts undergoing rehabilitation had allegedly been diverted by private centres in the state, prompting ED to initiate a probe, believing that the money generated could have been laundered.
ED sources in Jalandhar said it had come to their notice that between January 1, 2019 and November 11, 2019, around five crore tablets had reportedly gone missing from private de-addiction centres. Following the revelation, the ED started a probe and wrote to the authorities concerned in the state’s health department seeking records of the said tablets.
In the last week of January, the state government had even issued a show-cause notice to around 90 de-addiction centres under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act to explain the “disappearance” of tablets.
The diversion of buprenorphine tablets had first been detected in December last year, when the state health department found that unauthorised persons were in possession of these tablets, which were meant only for drug de-addiction centres to rehabilitate addicts.
As per the initial reports, each of these centres was believed to have earned around Rs 1.5 crore by selling buprenorphine tablets to unauthorised persons.
When the discrepancies in the supply of buprenorphine tablets was detected by the health department, health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had said the department was compiling the details, which were to be shared with the Enforcement Directorate.
A senior official of the Enforcement Directorate on condition of anonymity said, “In February, we had written to the health department seeking information about the supply of buprenorphine tablets to the de-addiction centres, but we have not yet received any reply from the authorities.”
Health minister Sidhu could not be contacted for his comments on the issue.