Delhi police have busted an interstate racket allegedly involved in the manufacture, repackaging and nationwide sale of spurious Schedule-H medicines and seized counterfeit drugs and related material worth over ₹2.3 crore.
Schedule-H drugs need a prescription for purchase.
The latest counterfeit drug racket has been unearthed at a time when the country’s drug regulators and pharmaceutical firms are under the scanner after India-made cough syrups were linked to child deaths abroad and in Madhya Pradesh. Recent raids, arrests and investigations have exposed large-scale syndicates operating across the country.
On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate had raided 25 locations across six cities in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Gujarat as part of a money-laundering probe against an alleged illegal codeine-based cough syrup trade racket in Uttar Pradesh, whose proceeds were estimated at ₹1,000 crore.
In November, the police had raided a counterfeit antacid manufacturing unit in the national capital and seized 91,000 fake sachets, raw materials and packaging materials. In October, the Gujarat police had unearthed a factory that allegedly produced counterfeit Colgate toothpaste.
Delhi police’s deputy commissioner (crime branch) Aditya Gautam on Sunday said the two accused arrested in connection with the counterfeit medicine racket were identified as Gaurav Bhagat, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, and Shree Ram alias Vishal Gupta, a resident of Nirmal Vihar in north-east Delhi.
“The operation was carried out by the crime branch. The accused were engaged in producing and selling counterfeit versions of popular prescription ointments, including Betnovate-C and Clop-G, which are widely used for treating skin infections, allergies and sports-related injuries,” the DCP said.
He said spurious medicines were being sold as genuine branded products, posing a serious risk to public health. A probe is underway to trace the entire supply chain, including wholesalers, distributors, delivery handlers and retailers involved in the illegal trade.
Acting on a tipoff, the police team raided several shops in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar, one of the country’s largest wholesale pharmaceutical and cosmetic markets, and seized a large quantity of counterfeit Schedule-H ointment. Subsequent technical analysis and follow-up intelligence led the team to a manufacturing unit at Meerpur Hindu village in Ghaziabad’s Loni.
“A search of the premises resulted in the recovery of counterfeit medicines, huge quantities of raw chemicals, packing material, empty tubes bearing forged brand labels and machinery used for mixing, filling and sealing ointments,” the DCP said.
Following the recovery, drug inspectors from the north and central zones of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, along with the authorised representatives of the pharmaceutical companies concerned, conducted spot inspections and took samples from the seized stock. Later, they confirmed that the medicines were fake and neither manufactured nor supplied by their companies.
A probe revealed that the accused were operating without any valid licence to manufacture, store or sell pharmaceutical products.
The seized material included around 1,200 tubes of spurious Betnovate-C ointment, over 2,700 tubes of fake Clop-G, over 3,700 tubes of spurious Skin-Shine ointment, nearly 22,000 empty fake Clop-G tubes, over 350kg of semi-prepared ointment, besides chemicals and manufacturing equipment.
"An FIR was registered under relevant sections of the BNS and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Raids are underway to identify and dismantle the entire supply chain," the DCP said.