Bengaluru/Mangaluru : The state govt is considering handing over the probe into the counterfeit pharmaceutical racket to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The investigation has uncovered suspected inter-state links, raising concerns about the network’s wider ramifications.
The development follows the seizure of counterfeit drugs worth over Rs 5 crore near Ramanagara in Aug. Preliminary investigations by multiple agencies revealed that the medicines had allegedly been manufactured in neighbouring states before being distributed locally.
“It appears that the racket was selling spurious and substandard drugs to pharmacies in hospitals, it is being checked,” sources said. The govt handed over the probe to a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has so far arrested eight people. Pharmacy storeowner Veeresh Kumar Jain, proprietor of Krupa Health Care and suspected kingpin, was the latest to be arrested after the SIT raided his unit near Minerva Circle in the city last week. On reports that the cartel also pushed counterfeit drugs in the name of cancer treatment, police and health dept officials maintained that they are yet to get any information from laboratories where samples have been sent for testing. Following a complaint by MLC Dr Dhananjay Sarji about the quality of Pushti nutritional powder supplied to children through anganwadi centres, the minister directed officials of the women and child development and health departments to collect samples and send them for laboratory analysis.
“Those running such mafias and playing with people’s lives must be prosecuted under stringent criminal provisions,” he said. The existing penalties were inadequate, often involving licence cancellation or nominal fines, according to him. The minister said stronger laws were necessary to ensure that those involved in the counterfeit drug trade could not evade prosecution by shifting their operations or adopting new identities.
This, he alleged, allowed offenders to relocate operations to places such as Kerala or Chennai and establish new businesses in the names of family members.
Health and family welfare minister UT Khader told reporters in Mangaluru Tuesday that the state would refer the case to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation, given the involvement of multiple states in the manufacture and distribution of fake medicines, mostly antibiotics.