Saifee Hospital death case: Trio arrested for manufacturing, supplying spurious injections

Mumbai: The VP Road police have arrested three owners of two pharmaceutical firms in connection with the death of a government officer at Saifee Hospital in October 2022 due to administering a spurious iron deficiency injection

Mumbai: The VP Road police have arrested three owners of two pharmaceutical firms in connection with the death of a government officer at Saifee Hospital in October 2022 due to administering a spurious iron deficiency injection.

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The accused trio - Amit Bansal, 47, of Jai Maa Ambe Medicos, Desh Deepak Suri, 52, and Pradeep Agarwal, 36, of Kanha Pharma, were arrested on Thursday in Delhi.

The Tis Hazari court granted transit bail to the trio and asked Bansal and Suri to remain present before the Girgaum court on February 13. Agarwal appeared before a holiday court on Saturday and was remanded to the VP Road police custody.

The trio is amongst the 12 persons/entities booked by the Mumbai police on January 7, 2023, in connection with the death of Vivek Kambali, 55 an officer with the PWD. On October 11, Kambali suffered an adverse reaction after doctors at Saifee Hospital administered an Orofer FCM injection to him and died the next day.

Following a complaint lodged by Kambli’s wife Sushma, also a government employee, Saifee Hospital informed the Food and Drugs Administration, which conducted a thorough inquiry and tracked down the supply chain of the injections from manufacturer to retailers.

The FDA sent the injection samples for examination to Samrudh Pharmaceutical at Tarapur in Palghar which concluded that the specimen was counterfeit/spurious and was not manufactured by Emcee Pharmaceuticals, the reports received by FDA stated.

The FDA officer concerned then lodged a police complaint, leading to the registration of the FIR against multiple entities last month under sections 304(2), 465, 468, 471, 473 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Food and Cosmetics Act.