Cuttack: Counterfeit drug trade in the state is still a worrying situation. In the meantime, the STF has raided 39 places in the state and outside the state and seized more than one crore worth of fake medicines. But there is no absolute control over this transaction. In the meantime, the Cuttack STF team raided Angul seized fake pentoacid (DSR) drugs, and handed them over to the Angul police station in this regard. Angul police have arrested Sanjib Kumar Sahu, while a case has been filed against four people in this incident. But in this case, 3 people are still back.
It is worth noting that fake medicines were first seized in Cuttack on September 6, 2022. The seizure of fake COVID-19 drugs and over-the-counter drugs has created a stir across the state. The link of this transaction extended to Banasi, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Agra, and Delhi. The drug department took the help of the police and raided the state and outside the state. The government constituted a special task force (STF) called the Drug Enforcement Squad to crack down on counterfeit drugs in the state.
The Cuttack STF team visited 22 places in the state and 17 outside the state, including Cuttack, Angul. Six cases related to counterfeit drugs have been registered in Cuttack, while four cases have been registered in Angul and one in Jharsuguda and Bargarh. In addition, 10 people, including the accused from outside the state, were arrested while the Cuttack team was able to seize fake drugs worth more than Rs. 1 crore. In Cuttack, a team consisting of Assistant Drug Controller Dharmadev Puhan, Tusar Ranjan Panigarahi, and Haripriya Mallick is working on complaints from six other places in the state including Cuttack. But even in such a situation, there is a risk of indirectly weakening the health service as there is no control over the sale of fake medicines.
