Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 1 Sep: The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) has arrested four company owners and plant heads for supplying medicines illegally to a fake firm. These medicines were later sold in the market in the name of branded life-saving drugs.
STF officials said that, so far, 10 people, including the mastermind of the gang, have been arrested in the case. The gang was involved in making and selling fake medicines by copying the packing and labels of reputed pharmaceutical companies. Officials said these fake medicines could have harmed people’s health and also caused a big loss to government revenue.
The investigation began in June when STF caught one man, Santosh Kumar, with fake wrappers, labels, and boxes of branded medicines. A case was registered at Selaqui police station, and later the investigation was handed over to STF. In this case, six people had already been arrested earlier.
During investigation, it was found that four companies in Dehradun – Keron Life Science Pvt Ltd, BLBK Pharmaceutical Pvt Ltd, Oxi Pharma Pvt Ltd, and Zentic Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd – supplied nearly 18 lakh tablets without proper packing and without a valid drug license.
The medicines were sold to a fake firm named Beechem Biotech, run by accused Naveen Bansal alias Akshay. These medicines were later repackaged in strips under the names of branded companies and sold in the market.
STF said the companies even mentioned “MRP 00.00” on the bills, which is normally done for government hospital supply. However, Naveen Bansal had no contract or permission to supply medicines to any government hospital.
The arrested accused are: Pradeep Gaud from Zentic Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, Shailendra Singh from BLBK Pharmaceutical Pvt Ltd, Shishir Singh from Oxi Pharma Pvt Ltd, and Tejendra Kaur from Keron Life Science Pvt Ltd.
