Three arrested for sale of counterfeit medicines across states

Nagpur, Sep 24 (PTI) With the arrest of three men, Nagpur rural police on Tuesday claimed to have busted an interstate racket involved in the distribution of counterfeit medicines.

Vijay Shailendra Chaudhary was arrested from Mira Road area in Thane while Raman and Robin Taneja were nabbed from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, officials said here.

The racket operated across Maharashtra and neighboring states, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Haryana, they said.

The accused supplied counterfeit versions of widely prescribed medical drugs such as Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Amoxicillin, Cefixime and Azithromycin under brand names of non-existent firms like `Lab Evertouch Bio Remedies’ and `M/s Ginx Pharmakon LLP’, police said.

The gang allegedly operated through Chaudhary’s business, Cabhis Generic House, and generated over Rs 15 crore using forged documentation related to shell or defunct companies.

The sale of counterfeit drugs first came to light last December when the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration tested ciprofloxacin tablets available with an establishment in Kalmeshwar near Nagpur and found that they were counterfeit.