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Punjab Police bust fake remdesivir manufacturing racket
Rupnagar police on Friday busted a multi-crore interstate fake remdesivir manufacturing racket with the arrest of six persons, including the kingpin who also used to sell the replicas of the life-saving anti-viral drug used to treat critical Covid patients on the black market
Rupnagar police on Friday busted a multi-crore interstate fake remdesivir manufacturing racket with the arrest of six persons, including the kingpin who also used to sell the replicas of the life-saving anti-viral drug used to treat critical Covid patients on the black market.
The police have recovered designs and packaging material used for making these vials besides ₹2 crore and four cars bearing registration numbers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Chandigarh from the possession of accused.
Those arrested are Mohammad Shahwar of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Arshad Khan of UP’s Baghpat, Mohammad Arshad of Saharanpur, Pradeep Saroha of Haryana’s Kurukshetra, Shah Nazar and Shah Alam, both from Mohali.
Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said Shahwar had 10 months ago taken a property in Maloya village on lease on the pretext of stocking medicines.
Following the recovery of vials in Bhakra canal last month, the SIT constituted to investigate the case traced the marketing address written on the recovered vials to Nautwins Pharmaceuticals in Maloya, whose owner was quizzed. He led the police to the unravel the entire conspiracy and identify the accused, the DGP added.
The owner also disclosed that various police teams from Delhi, Panipat, and Ambala had also raided the premises to know the whereabouts of the accused.
Samples sent to Kolkata for forensic exam
Investigations are on to ascertain their area of operations in other states and samples from recovered vials have been sent to the Kolkata central drugs laboratory for forensic examination, the DGP said.
After nominating the name of Shahwar and his aide Shah Nazar, who was the main supplier of these fake injections, the Rupnagar police conducted raids at Kala Amb, the main office and house of Shahwar, to get further leads. In the meantime, Shahwar visited Goa, Bengaluru, UP, Delhi and various other locations to evade arrest, Gupta said.
An SIT headed by SP (headquarters) Ankur Gupta was formed after 3,000 vials, including 621 of remdesivir and 1,456 of cefoperazone, were recovered from Bhakra canal on May 6.
An FIR was registered under relevant provisions of the IPC, the Trademark Act, the Essential Commodities Act, the Epidemic Diseases Act, and the Drugs and Cosmetic Act at Chamkaur Sahib police station.
