PRAYAGRAJ, Dec. 20 -- The Allahabad high court on Friday dismissed writ petitions that challenged the FIRs lodged against multiple accused of interstate trafficking of codeine-based cough syrup. Dismissing a batch of 23 writ petitions, including that of the alleged kingpin of the suspected cough syrup nexus Shubham Jaiswal and his father, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Achal Sachdev observed that the enormity of the entire matter needed to be investigated. The FIR was lodged against them at Varanasi as well as at other districts in the state. Additional advocate general Anoop Trivedi, appearing for the state government, informed the court that in Varanasi alone over 2.23 crore bottles had been recovered, which highlighted the sheer scale of the operation. He laid emphasis on the enormity of the entire racket as he submitted that it could be said with confidence that the chemical codeine, which was an ingredient of the cough syrup, was not being used for medicinal or scientific purposes. In its judgment, the high court rejected the arguments of the petitioners by looking at the intent and method of the trade. The court relied heavily on the recent Supreme Court decision in Directorate of Revenue Intelligence vs. Raj Kumar Arora & Ors 2025 and observed, "Phensedyl medicine which has codeine as a component which was being used in such enormity as was clear from the reading of the FIR then definitely we are of the view that the case had to be investigated into under all the sections of the NDPS Act and others under which the FIRs had been lodged." "Definitely we find that transferring of Phensedyl cough syrup was being done from Jharkhand to the state of Uttar Pradesh by e-way bills which were not in the proper category of carrying of drugs but were for the purposes of carrying of snacks and namkeen," the court further said. The court also said that hiding medicines in grain sacks and using forged identities cannot be construed as dealing in drugs for medical or scientific purposes. Therefore, the protection under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act evaporates and the rigors of the NDPS Act kick in....