Interstate fake medicine racket busted, 10 arrested

Tribune News Service

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, March 7

The Delhi Police crime branch on Thursday busted an interstate drug racket involved in the manufacturing and distribution of fake medicines. The operation, spanning multiple states, including Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, resulted in the arrest of 10 persons, including key players responsible for the production, supply and distribution of counterfeit drugs.

The arrested have been identified as Vikas Chauhan (36), Surender Malik (40), Parvez Khan (33), Upkar Singh (33), Jasdeep Singh (23), Abdul Bashit (21), Daniyal Ali (25), Mukesh Kumar (42), Anil Kumar (23) and Chander Pal Singh (70).

Sanjay Bhatia, Additional Commissioner of Police, Crime, stated, “The team has successfully dismantled two major drug rackets operating at a national level by apprehending individuals involved in the illicit trade of counterfeit medications. The seized counterfeit medicines, valued at crores of rupees, included painkillers, diabetes medications, antibiotics and migraine treatments.”

The police received a tip-off on February 26 about the movement of fake drugs in the Capital. The anti-gang squad of the crime branch formed three teams to apprehend the gang.

The first team, along with a medical representative from Johnson and Johnson and Lupin company, intercepted an Eeco van near Tilak Bridge and overpowered two persons — Upkar, alias Manni, and Jasdeep.

The police found a huge quantity (44,530 tablets) of fake medicines, including Ultracet (29,850) — used to treat pain, Amaryl M1 (2,080) and Gluconorm (8,700) to treat diabetes II and Defcort (3,900) to treat inflammation in asthma, arthritis, and allergies, inside the van.

Bhatia said Upkar admitted that the recovered medicines were spurious and named Abdul Bashit as the source of supply for Ultracet tablets and Vikas as the source for the rest of the medicines.

The second police team arrested Mukesh Chand during a search of his house and recovered 730 tablets from him. The third raiding party recovered 5,700 tablets of Ultracet. The police arrested Abdul Bashit, Parvez and Daniyal Ali from different places in the Trans-Yamuna area.

Bhatia said the pharmaceutical companies checked the recovered medicines and confirmed that they were fake, posing a risk to patients.

The police have registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating), 328 (causing hurt using poison), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention), and 63, 65 (copyright infringement) of the IPC.

He said, “During interrogation of the accused, it was revealed that the fake Ultracet medicine was being manufactured at a factory in Sunder Nagar, Mandi, in HP by Anil Kumar, who is an employee of Malik.” “These fake medicines are then transported through courier — Nitco Roadways — from Sunder Nagar, HP, to Panipat, Haryana, in the name of fake firm billing of Aggarwal Ayurvedic,” he added. Parvez prepared a fake stamp in the name of Aggarwal Ayurvedic, and he used to collect the spurious medicines from Nitco Roadways. The police launched a subsequent raid at the office of Nitco Transports at Panipat, and they recovered Monocef-O tablets (2,16,000) along with packing material which were couriered in the name of Aggarwal Ayurvedic.

Police officials said Parvez used to sell the spurious Ultracet medicines to Ali, who possesses a diploma in pharmacy. Ali does not run any shop and instead has given his licence to Abdul Bashit in lieu of Rs 5,000 per month. Bashit ran a medical store – ASR medical store – in Geeta Colony.

The police said Bashit used to sell the spurious Ultracet medicines in loose from his medical store and also to Upkar Singh in bulk quantity. While, in regards to other tablets – Amaryl M1, Gluconorm and Defcort, Upkar used to purchase the other tablets from Vikas. Vikas was a manufacturer for most of the drugs at his factory in Rajender Nagar in Ghaziabad. Meanwhile, the rest of the drugs came from Roorkee in Uttarakhand through a person named Shahrukh, who is already arrested in a drug-related case, they added.

Bhatia said, “The seized medicines were widely utilised by a significant portion of the population to manage conditions like diabetes and migraines. The circulation of these counterfeit drugs posed a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of ordinary citizens.”

Bhatia added that they conducted a raid at the Sunder Nagar factory; however, police found that Anil had closed the factory in Sunder Nagar and shifted it to Shamli, UP. After obtaining the factory address, the police conducted a raid in Shamli where they found complete machinery capable of manufacturing medicines at a large scale, estimated to be worth Rs 33 lakh.

The police revealed that the manufacturer, Anil, was also arrested from the Ganaur railway station, Panipat, while he was planning to escape. He later disclosed that he was merely the caretaker and manufacturer of the said unit, and the actual mastermind behind the manufacturing of spurious medicines was Malik.

Raids were conducted at multiple locations, and finally Malik was nabbed from Narwana, Haryana. Meanwhile, Vikas Chauhan was arrested at his house in Mandoli Extension. Initially, he disclosed to the police that he used to buy the spurious medicines from Roorkee. However, after sustained interrogation, he revealed that he owned a manufacturing unit in Rajendra Nagar, Ghaziabad, and a godown in New Defence Colony in Bhopra, Ghaziabad. Accordingly, a raid was conducted at the godown, and the police recovered 3,42,450 tablets, including Pantocid DSR tablets, Gluconorm G1, Gluconorm G2, Defcort-6, OMED DSR (6,750), empty gelatin capsule shells and two dye machines.

In Rajendra Nagar, the police found a complete machinery set capable of manufacturing medicines at a large scale, estimated to be worth Rs 26 lakh. Along with the tablets and machines, they also recovered Rs 70,000 in cash.

The nabbed accused

Surender Malik, a graduate in Arts, previously worked as a supervisor in a pest control agency before venturing into his own business of manufacturing spurious medicines. He was wanted in a fake drug-related case in HP

Vikas Chauhan, who holds a Diploma in Pharmacy, initially opened a medical store. Later, he transitioned into manufacturing spurious medicines

Chander Pal Singh, father of Vikas, is a retired Sub-Officer in Delhi Fire Services. He was involved in disposing of raw material and packaging material of spurious medicines after Vikas’s arrest

Anil Kumar worked as a driver for Surender Malik

Parvez previously worked in a medical store and subsequently began selling spurious medicines

Daniyal Ali holds a diploma in pharmacy. He used to purchase spurious medicines from Pravez and sold them to Bashit’s store

Abdul Bashit, formerly employed at Rajiv medical store, obtained a licence from Ali to open his own medical store. He purchased spurious medicines from Ali and sold them at his store.

Upkar Singh works as an agent for the sale and purchase of medicines. He purchased and sold spurious medicines to Mukesh and others.

Mukesh was also an agent for the sale and purchase of medicines. He purchased spurious medicine from Upkar and sold them to other shops.

Jasdeep Singh was the driver responsible for transporting the vehicle containing the spurious medicines.

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