Ketamine filled in toothpaste tubes; 1 held

New Delhi: A 36-year-old man was arrested from Central Delhi’s Paharganj here on Thursday with the police seizing a kilogram of a drug ketamine, filled in branded toothpaste tubes, worth Rs 25 lakh that was to be supplied to foreign customers.

The accused, Satender Kumar Yadav alias Rakesh, was arrested on September 21, on the basis of a tip-off, they added. The police learnt about Yadav, who is a member of an international illegal drugs syndicate, coming near Panchkuian Road Mod, Nehru Bazar, Paharganj to send ketamine abroad through courier, the police said.

A trap was laid and he was nabbed. The police recovered a kilogram of Ketamine powder, a psychotropic substance from him that was filled in branded toothpaste tubes.

Yadav is a resident of Bihar and was living in Paharganj here. He was running a cosmetic shop in the area.

Earlier, he was working as an assistant at his cousin Nagender’s chemist shop in Paharganj, where foreign customers often used to visit to purchase Ketamine, a psychotropic drug, said Bhisham Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Nagender would prepare Ketamine powder from Ketamine injections and supply it in foreign countries. In 2012, Nagender was arrested by police. Following his arrest, Yadav took over his business and started supplying Ketamine powder to his foreign customers.

Initially, he used to purchase Ketamine injections from specific medical stores in Paharganj but later he started purchasing them from his source in Patna, since the store owners in Delhi had started their own business of preparing Ketamine powder, said the DCP.

The consignment of Ketamine powder, that was seized from him, was prepared by him from Ketamine injections received from Patna. The accused filled the Ketamine powder in branded toothpaste tubes and was going to supply it to his contact in Spain by courier, he added.

Raids are being conducted in Delhi and Patna to arrest the associates of the accused, he added. Ketamine is a medicine used as an anaesthetic and also for pain relief and as an antidepressant.

Ketamine is banned in several European countries and in India, it is manufactured and supplied under the special provisions of Drugs and Cosmetic Acts and Rules, said the officer. Due to its misuse as a drug, it is also covered under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act.