The Odisha Police on Monday busted a cough syrup smuggling racket in Bolangir under its Mission Cough Syrup drive. The gang was dealing with illegal Eskuf Syrup.

The police have arrested 38 people smuggling Eskuf Syrup. According to the reports, the Bolangir Town Police also seized 12,960 bottles of Eskuf Syrup worth Rs 35 lakhs, one country-made mouser, one Mahindra XUV, two pickup vans, one Tata Ace van, 2 bikes, Rs 7,500 in cash, 17 mobile phones, gold, and other incriminating articles.

Bolangir SP Nitin Kusalkar deployed a special team to Bolangir, Bargarh, and Cuttack districts as a part of Mission Cough Syrup.

First, 45 cartons of illegal cough syrup were seized near Sudapada overbridge from a four-wheeler while being smuggled to Bolangir. Around 40 boxes of illegal cough syrup were seized from a warehouse in Cuttack.

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The police arrested 35 criminals including Sana Negi and Prashant Kheti, two major players in the racket. The police said a notorious criminal and drugs smuggler Prashan Kheti was apprehended from the vehicle along with the seizure of a country-made mouser, 2 swords, Rs 7,500, etc. from him.

These drug traffickers sell illegal cough syrup to the local youth by smuggling it from Kolkata through Cuttack to several districts in Odisha. There is a huge amount of profit in this business mainly due to the fact that young people of the middle age are using this drug. A bottle of cough syrup is bought for only Rs 15 and is being sold for Rs 150 to Rs 200.

Bolangir Police said this was the largest racket of the cough syrup mafia to have been busted.

Last week, police seized 3,000 bottles of cough syrup from a truck in Assam’s Karimganj district along the Assam-Tripura border.

Man caught smoking aboard London-Mumbai Air India flight refuses bail, opts for jail

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A man arrested for reportedly smoking aboard an Air India flight faces jail time after he refused a Mumbai court order to pay Rs 25,000 in bail money and instead claimed he had “searched online’ that the offence for which was charged for liable for a fine of Rs 250.

The passenger, Ratnakar Dwivedi—who was charged under section 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code after he was reportedly caught smoking in the lavatory of Air India’s London-Mumbai flight and behaving in an unruly manner on March 10—had been granted a cash bail by the court.

However, Dwivedi refused to pay the bail money of Rs 25,000 and instead told the court he would rather go to jail as he had read online that the fine payable under section 336 of the IPC is Rs 250, which he was willing to pay.

Following his refusal, the man was sent to jail by the Andheri metropolitan magistrate sent him on Monday.

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In a statement, Air India had said that Dwivedi was caught smoking in the lavatory of the London-Mumbai flight also behaved aggressively with crew members onboard despite being warned repeatedly.

The Airline in the statement said that he was handed over to security personnel upon the flight’s arrival in Mumbai, and the regulator has been duly informed of the incident, adding that Air India is extending all cooperation in the ongoing investigations.

An FIR by the Mumbai Police accuses him of causing disturbance on the flight and endangering the lives of passengers onboard, besides also disobeying the pilot’s oral and written instructions to keep calm.

Notably, civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), penalized Air India twice in January for not reporting two separate incidents of unruly passenger behaviour on its international flights.

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‘Thenga mila hai’, said Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Monday, as he scoffed at the Enforcement Directorate’s claim of seizing Rs 600 crore during last week’s raids at the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader’s and his sisters’ residential homes in Delhi.

Tejashwi Yadav rubbished the ED’s claims and claimed that all the probe agency officials found at his Delhi home was a “nod from above.” The RJD leader was speaking to reporters upon returning from celebrating Holi with his father Lalu Prasad Yadav who recently had a kidney transplant surgery.

Repudiating the ED’s claim, Yadav said ‘Thenga mila hai’ (they found zilch), during raids conducted at his Delhi home in connection with the purported land for jobs scam.

The Bihar deputy CM alleged that his sisters and their in-laws were forced to take off jewelry they were wearing and these were photographed and shown as “recovery” by ED officials, adding that his sisters are not involved in politics and got married after Lalu Prasad’s tenure as Railway Minister had ended.

Yadav accused the ruling BJP of targeting his family by “misusing” central agencies against them.

Yadav said the “witch hunt” started in 2017 when “these agencies spoke of Rs 8,000 crore”. The RJD leader was referring to the land for hotels scam, adding “nothing came of that case.

He said that after they were back in power and proved majority in assembly, raids were conducted on RJD leaders on the same day.

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Recalling last week ED raid, Yadav said the search at his Delhi home was over in 30 minutes. He said his wife Rajshree Yadav—who is pregnant with the couple’s first child— offered tea to the ED officials who on being asked, said they can only leave after they get a call from above.

Yadav alleged that the raid was “clearly intended” to carry out a propaganda against him.

Last week, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at Delhi homes of Tejashwi Yadav and his sisters in connection with the alleged land for jobs scam, in which the CBI has named their parents and former Bihar chief ministers, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi as prime accused.

The CBI chargesheet has named Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and 14 others in the purported case which allegedly involves people being given employment in the railways in exchange for land parcels parcels gifted or sold at cheap rates to the Yadav family and its associates.

The accused have been charged of criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and have been summoned on March 15. The ED, which probes financial crimes, has filed its case stemming from the same CBI complaint, under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

On March 7, Lalu Yadav, a former railway minister was questioned by the CBI, day after his wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi was grilled by the probe agency in the same case.

The CBI case, which names the Yadav couple and their daughters Misa and Hema, among others, is based on allegations that Yadav and his family members bought land at a discount in exchange for jobs while he served as Union Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009.

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