Guwahati, Feb. 19: City police today busted an inter-state racket in spurious medicines, seizing 72 cartons of spoilt cough syrup and arresting two persons from a rented house at Paltan Bazar.

A police team raided the rented house and arrested two persons who had been residing there for a long time and operating the racket. However, the police refused to divulge the identities of the arrested duo as investigations into the case were continuing.

?The police have seized the bottles of Phensedyl, a cough syrup, from the house. The labels on several bottles of the medicine showed the expiry dates had been passed around four to five years ago.

Both persons are suspected to have run the inter-state spurious drug racket for the past two years from the city,? a source said.

Additional superintendent of police Rajen Singh said they had conducted the raid after receiving information that an inter-state racket in spurious drugs was operating in the city. He said there were also reports that these drugs were supplied to neighbouring Bangladesh.

?Our investigation is on. The police are looking for the kingpin. We request co-operation from all quarters,? Singh said.

There are reports that spurious and substandard drugs have flooded the city, jeopardising the health and lives of residents.

Health department officials have failed to monitor the menace. There are only two health inspectors to cover the entire undivided Kamrup district.

One of the officials has been assigned a part of Darrang district as well. The drug inspection wing of the health department has virtually become defunct, sources said.

Former medical college teachers have joined hands to evolve a strict monitoring mechanism to do away with the menace of spurious and substandard drugs in the city.