Kolkata, February 16 The Calcutta High Court on Monday granted bail to a pharmacy owner, who was arrested for storing large quantities of cough syrup, noting that the West Bengal government could not produce any circular that deters any wholesaler or retailer from storing such material.
The court noted that the State of Uttar Pradesh has a limit on the amount of codeine-based cough syrup that can be stored in a pharmacy at any given time, but no such document could be produced by the West Bengal government's lawyer before the court in this matter.
Granting bail to the pharmacy owner, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh observed that the state has only made out a case of seizure of contraband, i.e., cough syrup and Tramadol mixture, in violation of the NDPS Act, but no case has been made out that such substances, which have been seized, were not for medicinal or scientific purposes.
The court noted that, according to the prosecution, the petitioner was arrested in April 2025, following the alleged recovery of 158.8 litres of codeine-mixed cough syrup and two packets of Tramadol mixture capsules, and that on demand, he failed to produce any documents in support of the same.
Justice Ghosh observed that the state has been unable to show that there is any limit in West Bengal for a pharmacy to store any quantity of that particular type of cough syrup.
He said that after reviewing the available laws, the court found that in Uttar Pradesh, the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) department has issued an office order for the sale of such substances.
He noted that the UP's FSDA department has also imposed a maximum limit of codeine-based cough syrup which can be stored to 1,000 bottles of 100-ml each for wholesale medicine shops and for retailers, the limit is of 100 bottles of 100 ml each to be stored at any given time.
"The State of West Bengal could not produce any office order, notification, or circular that deters any wholesaler or retailer from storing such material, which is cough syrup or any codeine-based cough syrup," the court observed.
Justice Ghosh said that there are provisions under the NDPS Act which do not restrict invoking the relevant laws in respect of offenders who, under the guise of having a license, carry out illegal activities.
"However, in order to make a case under the NDPS Act, the prosecution should have materials to show illegal procurement, illegal sale, no entry in the register, or non-maintenance of accounts in respect of such contraband," the court observed.
Praying for his bail, the petitioner, Vijay Prakash Goel's lawyer, claimed that he was illegally detained on the accusation of having committed offenses under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
It was claimed that the petitioner owned a pharmacy in Howrah and was carrying out business with a valid license from the appropriate authorities.
Opposing the bail prayer, the state's lawyer submitted that a huge quantity of codeine mixture/cough syrup was recovered along with Tramadol mixture tablets, and that the police had adhered to the provisions of law in arresting the accused.