A fake drug ring that was discovered in the Odisha districts of Bargarh and Jharsuguda in January has expanded to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Telangana.
Following the arrest of a Bulandshahr resident by UP police on Thursday, it was discovered that the fake medicines were primarily made in the Baddi region of Solan district in Himachal Pradesh and distributed throughout the nation.
According to the FIR submitted by police at Varanasi’s Sigra police station, the narcotics were manufactured primarily in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana before being moved to Uttar Pradesh. Police discovered that the suppliers pasted GST receipts for other products on the fake medications to avoid tax officials checking them during interstate transit.
The medications were distributed throughout UP, Bihar, and Odisha, in addition to Calcutta, Hyderabad, and Ahmadabad. They affixed logos of well-known companies’ production facilities in Chandigarh, Guwahati, Sikkim, Haridwar, and Baddi.
While the Odisha Police have filed cases against five people, two of whom are from Uttar Pradesh, the Uttar Pradesh Police have submitted FIRs against 16 people at the Sigra police station in Varanasi (UP).
Many famous antibiotics and acid-reducing medications are among the forgeries marketed. Ashok Kumar, the arrested UP supplier, informed police that he purchased the consignments from a supplier in Haryana’s Panchkula and two individuals from Himachal Pradesh. The Panchakula provider is licenced to produce certain counterfeit medications. He did, however, sell counterfeit medications of well-known names, according to authorities.
The fake drugs, an antibiotic from the same UP source, were also peddled in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, according to Odisha officials. Following the discovery of the fake brands, officials intend to take action against the sellers in the twin cities, according to another top health department official.