Pimpri: The Pimpri police have arrested a medical shopkeeper involved in manufacturing and selling counterfeit cancer injections that were not approved for sale in India. The arrested individual has been identified as Shriprasad Shrihari Kulkarni, a 42-year-old resident of Rohan Radhika Apartment, near Prathamesh Nagri, Sun City, Sinhagad Road. Authorities have seized two boxes of fake cancer injections worth Rs 3.5 lakh from him, each of which he sold for Rs 1 lakh.
The case came to light after Mahesh Vishnu Kamble, a 42-year-old resident of Janwadi, lodged a complaint with the Pimpri police. According to the police, the injection in question, Adcetris, produced by TAKEDA Pharmaceutical Ltd. for cancer treatment, is not manufactured for sale in India. The pharmaceutical company informed Kamble that Kulkarni had been selling counterfeit versions of the drug in Pune.
Further, the plaintiff learnt that the accused was selling the drugs only to cancer patients. Therefore, to verify the allegations, a woman with cancer was asked to place an order for two injections. Kulkarni charged her Rs 2 lakh for the fake injections. The woman sent the injections to the pharmaceutical company for verification, which, after the examination, confirmed that they were counterfeit.
Accordingly, Kamble then reported the incident to Pimpri police. In a subsequent operation, the woman again placed an order for two injections. Kulkarni was apprehended when he came to deliver the fake injections at Niramay Hospital. During the search, police found two boxes of counterfeit injections valued at Rs 3.5 lakh. Assistant Police Inspector Dr. Ashok Dongre is leading the ongoing investigation into the matter.
