Delhi Police busts syndicate trading counterfeit cancer drugs, arrest 17

New DelhiThe Delhi Police’s crime branch has busted an interstate syndicate involved in the trade of illegally diverted high-value medicines, including counterfeit anti-cancer drugs, and arrested 17 people after seizing medicines worth ₹9 crore and ₹50 lakh cash in a series of raids across multiple cities, officers aware of the matter said on Thursday

New Delhi

Medicines worth ₹9 crore were seized. (Representative photo)

The Delhi Police’s crime branch has busted an interstate syndicate involved in the trade of illegally diverted high-value medicines, including counterfeit anti-cancer drugs, and arrested 17 people after seizing medicines worth ₹9 crore and ₹50 lakh cash in a series of raids across multiple cities, officers aware of the matter said on Thursday.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Aditya Gautam said that the network was operating through multiple intermediaries in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai, Hyderabad, and cities in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Among those arrested are two B Pharma degree holders, the officer said.

The DCP said that the crime branch’s interstate cell received inputs about location of suspects in Rohini of Delhi and Mumbai. “We formed seven teams and simultaneous raids were conducted on July 11 in Delhi and Navi Mumbai in coordination with the drugs department and local police. During the searches, high-value anti-cancer medicines Darzalex, Imfinzi, Erbitux, Opdyta, Gazyva, Bavencio, Adcetris and Keytruda were recovered. A case was registered and investigation was taken up,” said Gautam.

Further probe led to the arrest of 17: Abhishek Vaishya, 26, Shubham Kumar Chaudhary, 25, and his brother Suraj Chaudhary, 22, Satish Kumar, 30 from Delhi; Gagan, 28, and Vishwas Tyagi, 35, from Ghaziabad; Mukesh, 30, and Mayank Garg, 35, from Gurugram; Anand Kumar, 42, from Noida; Ayush Kumar, 23, from Navi Mumbai; Paramjeet Sheroran, 34, from Jhajjar; Srinivasulu, 52, Ramdas Satish Kumar, 42, and Malugari Srinath Reddy, 35, from Hyderabad; Deepak alias Ravi, 33, and Jaswant Sharma, 42, from Faridabad; and Manish Sharma, 28, from Rajasthan’s Alwar. Sheroran and Reddy are B.Pharma degree holders, the police said

Police recovered 588 filled anti-cancer medicine vials, six empty vials, seven empty medicine boxes, 3,021 units of other high-value medicines, and ₹50 lakh from the arrested men.

DCP Gautam said the syndicate procured counterfeit medicines through unauthorised sources, misappropriated and diverted medicines meant for cancer patients from hospitals, and diverted government-supplied medicines from government institutions and warehouses

Some of the arrested men worked in medical stores or ran companies dealing in medicines. Investigators are trying to identify people who supplied them medicines from hospitals and warehouses.

The medicines were procured without valid invoices, purchase records, drug licences or other lawful documentation through illegal means, were stored at residential locations, and were circulated through a network of intermediaries, Gautam said.

“Original cartons and empty boxes were retained and reused for repackaging. Batch numbers, MRP details and other identifying markings were removed using chemicals such as acetone, apparently to conceal the source and identity of the medicines. We have also recovered registers and diaries containing details of medicine transactions and cash dealings were also recovered,” he said.