Talcum powder mixed with starch used in antibiotics supplied to Indian government hospitals
Representational image of medicines.
Antibiotics distributed to government hospitals in the western Indian city of Nagpur were nothing but talcum powder mixed with starch, a 1,200-page chargesheet filed in the spurious drugs supply case unearthed last year has revealed.
According to the chargesheet, the counterfeit antibiotics were made in a Haridwar-based laboratory of veterinary medicines. The fake medicines were supplied across India, including hospitals in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
The money to buy the fake medicines came from hawala channels that the racketeers used to transfer hundredsof thousands of dollars from Mumbai to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
An individual named Hemant Muley has been registered as the main offender as he participated in the tender to supply fake medicines. Apart from him,Mihir Trivedi and Vijay Chaudhury have also been charged with the latter already in jail for another fraud case.
Chaudhury later named Saharanpur-based Robin Taneja alias Himanshu and Raman Taneja as his compadre in the operation.
"We reached the Haridwar veterinary laboratory of Amit Dhiman after the Taneja brothers named him. Dhiman was in jail after being arrested by Uttarakhand STF. He was later arrested in our case too," said IPS officer Anil Mhaske.
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How was the fake medicine case busted?
The state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) busted the racket in December 2023 whenaround 21,600 Ciprofloxacin 500mg tablets were confiscatedfrom the medicine stores under the Nagpur Civil Surgeon at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH).
“The samples were sent to the government laboratory for testing, and the results indicated a complete absence of medicinal value in the tablets. In response to the findings, we conducted a raid at the government store at IGGMC and seized a stock of 21,600 tablets,” the FDA said back then.
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The antibiotic tablets, intended for treating bacterial infections from urinary tract infections to pneumonia, were distributed in 2022 and 2023 in government-run civil hospitals across the district.
(With inputs from agencies)