Gucci bags, Rado watches: Raid on UP ex-constable's mansion reveals a lavish lifestyle

AT number one, the mansion's opulence from the exterior made headlines when the Enforcement board of directors raided dismissed law john constable Alok Pratap Singh's Lucknow home. And now comes a list of luxury items seized from the home, as probe into the multi-crore cough syrup smuggling racket reveals new details, on Sunday.The 7,000-sq-ft home has ornate European-style interiors and spiral staircases, plus vintage-style lights. The trove of luxury items seized includes handbags of major brands Prada and Gucci, Rado watches tha cost lakhs apiece, and several expensive electronic devices, officials said as per a report by news agency PTI.The Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Alok Pratap Singh, who was dismissed from service a second time in 2019, on December 2.Alok Pratap's name came up during the interrogation of another accused, Amit Kumar Singh alias Amit ‘Tata’. He is currently lodged in the Lucknow jail.“Preliminary assessments suggest that ₹1.5-2 crore was spent solely on interiors, while the construction of the house alone may have cost around ₹5 crore, excluding the land," a senior police officer privy to the investigation told PTI."A government-approved valuer has been appointed to determine the full investment and any illicit funds involved,” the officer added.What is the ‘CBCS’ racket?The racket, alleged to have laundered ₹1,000 crore, is about selling codeine-based cough syrups (CBCS) as intoxicants for drug abuse.Police allege Alok Pratap Singh was part of this network and ran wholesale cough syrup units in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, from where the syrup was smuggled into other states and even across the borders into Bangladesh and Nepal.He also mentored young men from Chandauli, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, and Varanasi, leveraging his connections in police and political circles, officials have said, as per PTI.The prime accused, Shubham Jaiswal, is believed to have fled to Dubai, while his father, Bhola Jaiswal, has been taken into custody.UP police chief Rajeev Krishna said earlier that the investigation has so far exposed a network of major “super-stockists”.So far, around 3.5 lakh bottles of cough syrup, valued at approximately ₹4.5 crore, have been seized, and 32 people have been taken into custody.Authorities are verifying financial transactions and money trails linked to the network, with the ED involved in parallel investigations.Who is Alok Pratap Singh, really?Originally from Chandauli, Alok Pratap Singh started his career with the police over two decades ago. He was arrested in 2006 in a case involving loot of gold, and was dismissed from service. He was reinstated after his acquittal by a court.New allegations of insubordination and corruption led to his second dismissal in 2019.After that, he reportedly turned to business ventures, cultivating connections that facilitated his role in the syrup network.