Nagpur . The Nagpur rural police in Maharashtra has busted a fake medicines racket that supplied fake antibiotics made from talcum powder and starch to government hospitals.
According to an English newspaper, several arrests were made during the investigation of the case and it was revealed that hawala channels were used for transactions worth crores of rupees. These fake medicines were distributed in various states of India.
The 1,200-page chargesheet filed by the rural police on September 20 in the case has revealed some shocking facts. It states that the antibiotics distributed in many government hospitals in the country were nothing but talcum powder mixed with starch, which was made in the laboratory of a veterinary hospital in Haridwar.
According to the police, apart from supplying fake medicines to government hospitals, the racketeers also extensively used hawala channels to transfer crores of rupees from Mumbai to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. This amount was transferred to the racketeers to purchase fake medicines. Those fake medicines were then supplied across India, including hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
This shocking case came to light in December last year, when the drug inspector found that the antibiotics supplied to the rural hospital of Kalmeshwar were fake, after which the drug inspector of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filed a case against the supplier and distributors in the Kalmeshwar police station last year. After this, the Civil Surgeon Office also blacklisted these companies.