LUCKNOW, Jan. 25 -- A truck driver's suspicion that he might be transporting a banned codeine-based cough syrup, amid an ongoing crackdown in Uttar Pradesh, led to the seizure of a large consignment of restricted prescription cough syrup worth nearly Rs.50 lakh in Etawah, senior police officials said on Saturday.

Although the syrup was later found not to contain codeine, it was identified as a regulated formulation allowed only in limited quantities in Bihar.

Etawah additional superintendent of police (City) Abhay Nath Tripathi said the intercepted container was carrying around 40,000 bottles of Viscof cough syrup, a legally manufactured medicine whose sale and bulk transportation are closely regulated. He added that recent enforcement ...