STF busts fake meds racket spread across 6 states

Dehradun: Uttarakhand special task force (STF) on Friday busted an online fake medicine racket operating through a Facebook page that allegedly sold counterfeit drugs, including cancer medicines, at discounts of 40-50% below MRP across multiple states.SSP STF Ajai Singh said the network had been under surveillance for nearly two months, during which their personnel posed as customers and ordered medicines to verify the operation. “The accused were running a Facebook page named SK Healthcare and were projecting it as a legitimate online medicine store by offering medicines at 40-50% discount on MRP. After receiving information about the racket, we monitored their activities and ordered medicines from the page as customers. The medicines were later sent to testing centres of the respective pharmaceutical companies, and all samples tested were found to be fake,” Singh said.He added that the counterfeit medicines included drugs prescribed for high blood pressure, fungal infections in women and even prostate cancer. “As the investigation progressed, two accused were arrested. They were identified as Jatin Saini (37), a resident of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, and Gaurav Tyagi (27), a resident of Haridwar. During interrogation, Saini revealed that he had been involved in the racket for the past two years along with associates operating from Gaya, Prayagraj, Badaun, Varanasi and Haridwar, where fake medicines were allegedly manufactured according to orders received through the Facebook page,” Singh added.STF ASP Vivek Kumar said the probe also led to the detection of two units manufacturing fake medicines in Bhagwanpur in Haridwar district and Kotdwar in Pauri Garhwal district. “Examination of the bank accounts used by the accused revealed that fake medicines were being supplied to retail pharmacists in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab and Uttarakhand. One of the accused, Tyagi, already faces FIRs in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand in similar cases,” Kumar said.Inspector Yashpal Bisht, who was also involved in the operation, said people should avoid purchasing medicines without proper bills and should take care to verify batch numbers mentioned on invoices.“If medicines are being offered at unusually heavy discounts, it is likely such products may be fake. Retailers should also avoid purchasing medicine stocks from unverified websites offering deep discounts. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS, IT Act and NDPS Act, and further investigation is underway,” Bisht said.