Spurious, expired medicines worth Rs10 crore seized in Patna

Patna: The Bihar police and drug control wing authorities on Friday seized fake and expired medicines and surgical items worth over Rs 10 crore in what was officially described as the biggest breakthrough against the life-threatening trade in the state in 13 years.

Police said the seizures were made following simultaneous raids on on Aditya Pharma on Govind Mitra Road and houses and godowns in Bengali Akhara, Patrakar Nagar and Biscomaun Colony areas. The cops also raided a scrapstore in Sandalpur-Bahadurpur locality, from where too large quantity of expired medicines and syringes were recovered.

“We had to use four trucks to transport the seized consignments consisting of expired and spurious medicines of branded pharmaceutical firms, lifesaving drugs, surgical equipment and recycled and relabelled syringes,” Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj told TOI on Friday evening.

According to the SSP, the drug authorities have so far estimated the worth of over half of the seized items to be over Rs 10 crore. “It’s still counting. A final figure will emerge by tomorrow evening,” said Maharaaj.

The raiding teams also arrested Ravi Shankar Kumar and Amit Kumar while they were allegedly packaging and relabelling expired drugs and syringes in a house owned by Ravi in Bangali Akhara. Ravi is also the proprietor of Aditya Pharma, police said.

A second Amit Kumar was nabbed from PIT Colony in Patrakar Nagar. Huge quantity of fake wrappers of major pharma firms were recovered from his house.

Patna drug inspector Sachchidanand Prasad said the seized items also included fake and expired baby oils, drip kits, tuberculosis drugs, cough syrups for children and multi-vitamin tablets.

The raiding teams also seized two trucks laden with fake and expired medicines from a godown at Pyarelal Ka Bagh in Biscomaun Colony in Alamganj, according to Prasad.

“One Ramesh Kumar Pathak, who owns the godown at Alamganj, was the kingpin of the massive racket. He, however, managed to escape,” Prasad said.

Police sources said the drugs were being supplied to drug stores in several Bihar districts, including Patna. The state health department’s drug control wing had been gathering intelligence inputs on the gang since they were first tipped off about it around six months ago.