The Dehradun Police arrested two men, busted a factory manufacturing fake medicines run by them and recovered large quantities of fake medicines and raw material from Dehradun, a police official said.
The accused were identified as Sachin Sharma (40), a resident of Manglaur in Roorkee (Haridwar) and Vikas Kumar (32), a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, who are currently residing in Raipur of Dehradun.
Police recovered 21,83,600 counterfeit capsules, 3,000 wrappers, empty capsules, 50 kg raw material, 107 tape roll, 15 foil cover, 15 empty cartons, 7 invoice bills, one laptop, seven mobile phones, one Range Rover, one KIA car, and machines and equipment used in the manufacturing of fake medicines.
Police said the two accused were associated with the drug manufacturing industry before they lost their job during Covid-19 period and eventually decided to set up a fake drug production factory. The two also acquired a large number of movable and immovable assets, including a Range Rover car worth ₹1 crore, by selling the spurious drugs in various parts of the country.
On October 14, Vikram Rawat, deputy manager of Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals Ltd had given a complaint to the Raipur Police station against one Sachin Sharma, proprietor of SS Medicose, Aman Vihar that he along with other people were selling counterfeit drugs of their company.
A case in this regard was registered under sections 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 483 (Counterfeiting a property mark used by another), 486 (Selling goods marked with a counterfeit property mark) and 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Raipur Police station.
Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said they first arrested Sachin Sharma along with his partner Vikas Kumar from Polytechnic Road, Raipur with a Range Rover car and recovered counterfeit 7,200 capsules of Indocap and Indocap SR from them.
On interrogation, the two accused revealed their fake medicine factory in Makdoompur village in Haridwar and raw material used in manufacturing of spurious medicines at a flat in Roorkee. The two accused told the police that they supply fake medicines to different states under the name of original company.
“On these inputs, we busted the factory in Makdoompur village and recovered the large quantity of fake medicines, equipment, raw material from the Roorkee flat,” Singh said.
“Accused Sachin Sharma revealed that he used to work as a supervisor in Haridwar laboratory, while his partner Vikas Kumar used to work in the marketing department of a pharma company. Both lost their job during Covid. They eventually decided to manufacture fake drugs of Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals and Walter Bushnell and sell them in various parts of the country. In 2022, they opened a firm SS Medicose whose proprietor is Sachin Sharma but they used to share equal profits earned by the firm. They set up a fake drug manufacturing factory in Makdoompur village in Haridwar and used to buy raw material from a Bombay based company. They would then prepare adulterated drugs at the factory and supply it to cities like Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata from their firm SS Medicose,” the SSP said.
“On an average, the accused could prepare 200 boxes of counterfeit drugs in a week,” he said.
He further added that by selling fake drugs, the accused acquired a Range Rover car worth Rs 1 crore, KIA Sonet car worth Rs 12 lakh, house worth Rs 50 lakh in Usha Enclave (Dehradun), 4 bigha land in Makdoompur (Haridwar).
Haridwar’s Roorkee, Laksar and Bhagwanpur areas have emerged as a centre of counterfeit medicine manufacturing units in the past few years.
In the past two years, the Uttarakhand police have busted several such units in Haridwar under its operation Health and arrested over a dozen people.
“The easily available resources like wrappers, raw material, and knowing that it gives higher returns are the key reasons for the growth of this business in different areas of Haridwar,” said a police official, who didn’t wish to be named.
