The drug’s packaging, manufacturing and expiry dates resembled the genuine product’s, police said
Three men — Dashil Sanghvi (39) of Ahmedabad; Devendra Yadav (39) and Umang Rastogi (34) both from Lucknow — were arrested on Wednesday night. Rastogi has another case under the GST Act registered in 2022. The three accused were produced before a magisterial court on Thursday and the investigator sought 10-day custodial interrogation.
Yadav and Rastogi had also been arrested in June in a counterfeit-medicine case registered in Pune, police said. Ahmedabad: A joint investigation by Ahmedabad City Crime Branch and Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration has uncovered an interstate network allegedly involved in manufacturing, procuring and distributing counterfeit blood-pressure medicine, with three persons arrested from Ahmedabad and Lucknow. The company later approached Ahmedabad police, following which crime branch and drug-control teams began tracing the supply chain. Investigators found that counterfeit strips had reached medical stores in different parts of Gujarat through distributors. A stock supplied through Parshva Medical Agency in Paldi had originated from Sena Medical in Lucknow. Police also traced another supply route involving AVR Medicose in Jaipur, which had allegedly supplied counterfeit stock that was recovered from Kutch. Police allege that the network used packaging and labelling designed to resemble the genuine product, including the product name and batch details. Police began examining how the counterfeit tablets were manufactured and whether they were produced at one location or procured from multiple sources. Police allege Sanghvi procured and distributed counterfeit stock in Gujarat, while Yadav and Rastogi sourced the medicines at discounted rates and arranged their supply in the state. The court granted seven-day police remand for the three.