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Fake cancer drug case: Delhi Police speak to victims
A senior police officer said that police have examined around 12 people who bought the fake medicines and injections
The Delhi Police, as part of its ongoing investigation into the fake cancer injections manufacturing and supply racket, have examined more than 10 patients and their families across India, officers aware of the matter said on Wednesday.
A senior police officer said that police have examined around 12 people who bought the fake medicines and injections and received them from the suspects operating from Delhi and NCR.
“The people we examined are shocked to know about it. We have identified more people and will examine them,” a senior police officer aware of the matter said.
Manish Kumar, 44, resident of Bihar’s Madhubani, lost his 38-year-old wife in 2022 and she was being treated at a hospital in the state. “We had visited a hospital in Delhi and someone at the medical store suggested we buy the medicine from a man and shared is contact details. I took the medicine from him two times — once in Patna and once in Delhi. He couriered it,” Kumar said.
In July 2022, Kumar’s wife took the injection which cost him ₹2 lakh for a 5ml vial and she fell sick shorty after. “She had stage 4 cancer. When she fell sick after being administered the medicine, I made a video and called the man from whom I bought the medicines but he had no answers,” he said adding that he spent more that ₹70 lakh on his wife’s treatment.
After a two-month-long operation, Delhi Police on March 12, said it busted an organised syndicate that was manufacturing and supplying fake cancer medicines in Delhi. After confirmation, the team conducted raids in four locations in Delhi and Gurugram where the suspects manufactured, packaged, and stored fake cancer drugs and injections, and recovered vials marked with counterfeit labels of seven international and two Indian pharmaceutical brands, valued at ₹4 crore in the market.
Police have so far arrested 12 people, including two employees of a major private cancer hospital in the Capital, a B-Tech graduate and pharmacists. The accused sold the medicines at medical stores across the city and other states. One of them, Neeraj Chauhan, 38, the alleged mastermind, also ran a medical tourism company through which he sold fake medicines to cancer patients from foreign countries for hefty amounts in US dollars.
After the drug racket was busted, investigators started looking for victims who consumed these medicines and found that they were spread across India and even abroad. Over the last two weeks, investigators identified and examined patients and their families.
