The Delhi police on Tuesday arrested 7 people in connection with the manufacturing and selling of fake life-saving cancer and chemotherapy drugs. The police recovered more than 140 vials of fake medicines at the location, which cost over Rs. 4 crore in the open market.
The Delhi Police Crime Branch and the Delhi government’s drug control department conducted raids and arrested seven people. The accused are Viphil Jain (46), Neeraj Chauhan (38), Suraj Shat (28), Parvez (33), Tushar Chauhan (28), Abhinay Kohli (30), and Komal Tiwari (39).
The accused used to collect the empty vials with labels of the hospitals. They filled the vials with spurious substances and sold them as life-saving cancer drugs on the market. They managed their fake drug operation from two flats, which are located at DLF Greens in Delhi’ Moti Nagar. As per the officials of the Drug Control Department, the accused used disposable syringes to fill innocuous substances into the vials and sealed them manually. They are sold to unscrupulous dealers.
Sanjay Bhatia, Additional CP (crime) said that they obtained the information concerning the gang from interstate crime (ISC) and created a police team to execute concurrent raids at four places in Moti Nagar, Yamuna Vihar, South City in Gurgaon, and a hospital in Delhi. At the location, the police found more than 140 vials of fake medicines and seized all the samples along with labeled vials, packing material, machines, rubber pack seal, and printed literature.
The officials said that the accused manufactured three types of fake medicines. They are Nivolumab 10mg/mL, a monoclonal antibody used to treat cancer, which is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Pharma, and Pembrolizumab Injection 100mg/4ml, used to treat skin cancer, which is manufactured by Schering Plough Labo NV and Fluconazole injection is another one which is used to treat fungi and yeast infections. All the samples are confiscated and sent to a laboratory for analysis.
The accused sometimes refilled the vials with the antifungal drug Fluconazole, worth Rs. 100, and sold them as life-saving anticancer drugs. Based on the brand It costs around Rs. 1-3 lakh per vial. The fake drug market held up for two years and the accused sold more than 7,000 injections.
The seven accused have different backgrounds. The police said the main key player in this fake drug racket is Viphil Jain from Baghpat, who failed in basic education and worked as a storeboy in a medical store. He, initially, delivered medicines from wholesale markets to local medical stores. He operated the drug market from two rented flats. Neeraj Chouhan, a graduate who worked as a manager in a hospital oncology department. The police said that he stockpiled a large store of spurious anti-cancer drugs. Suraj dealt with the refilling and packaging of the vials. Tushar is a lab technician and cousin of Neeraj, he delivered fake medicines at Bhagirath palace. Parvez, an ex-pharmacist, worked at a cancer hospital in Delhi. He arranged empty vials for Viphil and he also took part in the refilling of vials. Earlier he worked in a mixing unit of chemotherapy medicines. Komal Tiwari and Abhinay Kohli are also employees of a Cancer Hospital in Delhi, where Parvez worked.
The Delhi Police arrested seven people after an immense process over two years. The officials also confiscated Rs. 50,000 cash, 197 empty vials, and $1,000 cash from the manufacturing site. All the accused have been arrested on the grounds of criminal conspiracy, forgery, selling adulterated drugs, and cheating. The probe is underway to track down the entire fake drug racket.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)