Calcutta, June 3 :
Not many may have noticed a small news item in a couple of papers two days ago. After all, the enforcement branch of the city police arrested only one person and seized just 140 bottles of fake rectified spirit.
But, according to sources, this is just the tip of the iceberg of a huge and harmful racket that has been going on in the state over the last six to seven years. Though the original manufacturers and the authorities have known about it for quite some time, they have been unable to do much.
Nearly 90 per cent of the rectified spirit available in the market today is fake and even spurious, officials of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, a central government undertaking, say. Rectified spirit contains 90 per cent alcohol and is used for toiletries and pharmaceuticals, among other things. But, in its raw form, it is used as a disinfectant to clean wounds, in surgery and before an injection is pushed.
It is in this form that large-scale duplication has been occurring, mainly because the commodity is a restricted item and cannot be stored or sold without a permit. ?We estimate that up to 10 lakh bottles (450 ml each) of the approximately 11 lakh sold in the market every year are fake,? says Bengal Chemicals managing director Probir Roy. He recalled an incident in Behala a few years ago where a person lost his eyes after fake spirit was used after an operation.
Several complaints have been made to the state excise department, the drug controller and the police but very little has happened. Both the drug controller and the excise department are aware of the racket, but say they lack the necessary infrastructure to conduct investigations and raids. Excise deputy commissioner Pradip Dasgupta, however, says no complaints have been made by Bengal Chemicals to them.
The fake bottles were seized from Bengal Medical Stores and Saha & Co, one of whose partners was arrested. The Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association has warned them of expulsion.
Saturday, 19 July 2025