Days after Oxytocin racket busted, kingpin arrested from Mumbra

Police launched an investigation to nab the kingpin of the racket and a team from the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Crime Branch, headed by Senior Inspector Vinayak Gaikwad, traced and arrested the accused — identified as Babubhai alias Allauddin Laskar, a resident of Kalyan in Thane — from Moti Mahal society in Amrut Nagar of Thane’s Mumbra on Friday.

Oxytocin is a key natural hormone that manages key aspects of the female and male reproductive systems, including labour, delivery and lactation (reproduction, childbirth and post childbirth activities), as well as aspects of human behaviour like bonding. The human hypothalamus makes oxytocin, but the posterior pituitary gland stores and releases it into the bloodstream. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2018 restricted the manufacturing of Oxytocin formulations for domestic use to the public sector only. It also banned the import of Oxytocin, primarily amidst reports of its heavy misuse in dairy cattle to increase milk yield and its suspected adverse effects on health of the cattle and eventually people who consume their milk. The new laws allowing only public sector entities to manufacture Oxytocin was legally challenged at the time, citing the lack of scientific data and criticality of the hormone for its medical use among the people.

According to police, consumption of milk produced by dairy cattle administered with Oxytocin can possibly cause hearing and visual impairment, digestive problems, respiratory issues, skin ailments, and severe complications among pregnant women and newborns.