ED attaches FDs worth Rs. 1.93 cr of Hygro Chemicals for illegal sale of scheduled drug

Hyderabad: Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached fixed deposits worth Rs. 1.93 crore belonging to Hygro Chemicals Pharmtek Private Limited, Bollarum, Medak district, Telangana, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 for illegally manufacturing and dealing in a scheduled drug Dextro Propoxyphene Hydrochloride (DPP HCL).

ED initiated the money-laundering investigation on the basis of a case registered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Hyderabad, for illicit sale/purchase, manufacture, and inter-state sale of a scheduled drug under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985.

Hygro Chemicals Pharmtek, which had a license from the Central Bureau of Narcotics, Gwalior, to manufacture DPP HCL, had clandestinely misused its license and illegally despatched 6,450 kg of DPP HCL to a partner concern – JK Pharma Agencies, New Delhi – during the period 2004-2006 via 26 airway bills by mis-declaring the same as some other chemical.

ED further said that in the wrong hands, DPP HCL can be used as a raw material to make narcotic substances. The said drug was illegally sold at Rs. 3,000 per kg and thus the accused company had generated proceeds of crime worth Rs. 1,93,50,000. Accordingly, ED traced equivalent assets in the form of fixed deposits of the accused company and in order to prevent their alienation before the conclusion of the trial, it issued a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) and attached the fixed deposits.