New Delhi: Delhi’s cyber police claim to have busted an inter-state drug racket of fake cancer medicines with the arrests of four people including a Syrian national.
The cyber cell of the crime branch arrested Syrian national Monier Ahmad, 54, and Indian nationals Naveen Arya, 40, Saurabh Garg, 34 and Karan Khaneja, 27, last month. The accused were allegedly involved in the illegal manufacture and distribution of counterfeit cancer drugs worth Rs 4 crore.
During raids in Delhi on 4 April, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rakesh Paweriya said the team seized illegal medicines worth Rs 1.5 crore from Shree Ram International Traders at Bhagirath Palace near Red Fort. They recovered another cache of Rs 2.5 crore from Terry White Lifecare in Daryaganj.
They were allegedly illegally selling fake and unregistered medicines, including life-saving drugs. These include OPDIVO (BMS), Revolade (Novartis), Keytruda (MSD Merck), Erbitux (Merck KgaA), Ozempic (Novo Nordisk), and Lenvima (Eisai).
Syrian acted as carrier, worked for Egypt syndicate
DCP Paweriya said the police received information that Ahmad, who acted as the carrier, would soon land in Delhi. They laid a trap on 14 May at the New Delhi Railway Station and arrested the Syrian national.
Further investigation revealed the involvement of more foreign nationals in the syndicate. Ahmad supplied medicines between Turkey, Egypt and India.
A mobile phone and two passports of Egypt and Syria, two residence cards of Egypt and Turkey, were recovered from Ahmad. He also allegedly disclosed that he worked for a syndicate based in Egypt, which smuggled cheaper cancer drugs from the Middle East to India, and Indian medicines back to Egypt and Turkey.
Life-saving medicines are cheaper in the Middle East than in India. For example, the price of the injection OPDIVO, produced by BMS for Turkey is Rs 30,000, whereas the price of the same injection in India is Rs 1 lakh.
The police have registered a case under sections 274 (adulteration of drugs), 275 (sale of adulterated drugs), 276 (sale of drug as a different drug or preparation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC, and Sections 63/65 (offence of infringement of copyright/protection of technological measures) of the Copyright Act.
Who are the other three?
Accused Saurabh Garg was co-director of the firm Terry White Lifecare in Daryaganj. His previous firm, Aswani, was also raided by the Drugs Department of GNCT. Garg has told the police about his experience in procuring defence supply medicines from various vendors.
Meanwhile, Karan Khaneja, 27, was co-director of Terry White and involved in the illegal transaction of drugs. Naveen Arya has a PhD and is a lawyer, according to the police. He operated Shree Ram International Traders for the past four years. He admitted to purchasing medicines from medical representatives without bills to maximise profits.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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