Nagpur: Authorities in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district have apprehended Raman Vijayakumar Taneja from Uttar Pradesh, implicating him in a fake medicine scam uncovered in March 2023. The arrest, confirmed by an official on Sunday, marks a significant advancement in the investigations.
A team from Kalmeshwar police station successfully detained Taneja in Saharanpur, UP. The case traces back to March when the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collected ‘ciprofloxacin’ tablet samples from a government-run healthcare facility in Kalmeshwar. Subsequent tests by a Mumbai lab, completed in December 2023, revealed that the tablets contained no ciprofloxacin, rendering them medicinally ineffective.
Owing to the contamination through Nagpur’s Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital, FDA officials seized 21,600 tablets from the hospital’s stock early this year. The strips indicated manufacturing by a non-existent Gujarat company. Initial arrests included prime suspect Vijay Shailendra Choudhary from Thane, along with Hemant Dhondiba Mule and Mihir Trivedi. Taneja’s involvement surfaced during further investigation, leading to his recent apprehension, with Choudhary also detained.
