Tramadol seizure: ‘Kingpin’ Rajiv Bhagat gets regular bail from Amritsar court

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 30

A local court on Friday granted regular bail to advocate Rajiv Bhagat in connection with the seizure of banned drug tramadol. Earlier, on July 8, the court has released him on interim bail.

The rural police said they would oppose the bail and approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this regard, said Abhimanyu Rana, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Majitha, who is supervising the investigations in the case.

Rajiv Bhagat is a former district Congress chief who shifted loyalties to the Aam Aadmi Party earlier this year. He was nominated following the investigations into the seizure of tramadol by the Mattewal police in May this year.

Three alleged drug traffickers were nabbed by the police at that time. Their interrogation led to a raid at a firm in Paonta Sahib involved in alleged illegal manufacturing of tramadol and huge quantity of drugs were seized by the police. The police had booked Rajiv Bhagat under the NDPS Act on June 25.

On the basis of the probe conducted so far, the police had named Bhagat as the main kingpin of the racket. He along with Amarpeet Singh, alias Sunny, and Manu Chohan used to supply tramadol, a banned drug, to other parts of the city, the police had claimed.

On May 18, the police had nabbed three persons with 45,000 tramadol capsules. This further led to the seizure of the drug worth Rs 15 crore from a factory in Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district in HP on May 28. The police had nabbed the alleged owner of factory ‘Unique Formulations’ Munish Mohan. During the probe, the police booked a prominent political leader in Himachal Pradesh Chetan Parmar in the case.

The police have so far arrested 10 persons in the case. Besides Mohan, those arrested included Prem Kumar Jha, who runs a medical store in Delhi and his employee Bablu; Ranu Bhargav of Mohali; Rajesh Wadera; Parmod Bisht; Amarpreet Singh, alias Sunny, a chemist from the Katra Sher Singh area, and Manu Chohan.

The case

• On May 18, the police had nabbed three persons with 45,000 tramadol capsules. This further led to the seizure of the drug worth Rs 15 crore from a factory in Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh on May 28
• On the basis of the probe conducted so far, the police had named Rajiv Bhagat, a former district Congress chief who shifted loyalties to the Aam Aadmi Party earlier this year, as the main kingpin of the racket