Palanpur warehouse raid yields ₹1 crore worth of banned drugs, accused arrested

A year after large quantities of banned drugs were seized from Dhanera and Tharad, the Central Narcotics team has made significant progress in the investigation by arresting two key accused.

The probe revealed that the prohibited drugs were being manufactured by a pharmaceutical company based in Ahmedabad. Acting on this input, the agency detained the company’s owner couple from Gandhinagar for interrogation, which led to another major recovery.

During sustained questioning, the couple disclosed that they operated a warehouse in Palanpur. Following this, the Narcotics team conducted a search at the location, where they recovered banned drugs worth ₹1 crore.

Earlier, in February and March 2024, the Central Narcotics Bureau had carried out raids in Dhanera and Tharad, seizing banned drugs worth ₹5 crore from medical stores and warehouses. In connection with the illegal supply chain, authorities had arrested Viththal Joshi from Dhanera and Deepak Maheshwari from Tharad, who were subsequently sent to judicial custody.

As the investigation widened, it surfaced that the contraband was being manufactured at Anti Pharmaceutical Company in Ahmedabad. The company owners, Sunil Modi and his wife Samiksha Modi, had been absconding for the past ten months to evade arrest. The duo was finally tracked down and apprehended in Gandhinagar.

Both were produced before the Palanpur court with a demand for seven-day remand. The court granted five days of custodial remand. During interrogation, the couple admitted to operating a warehouse on Gobari Road in Palanpur.

Based on this confession, authorities searched the warehouse and seized 2,800 bottles of codeine syrup, along with 26,000 Tramadol injections and tablets — all valued at approximately ₹1 crore.