Chasing drug bust, UPSTF stumbles upon larger cache

Investigations into a drug racket busted in March this year, led to another cache and link to an interstate supply chain of bogus/misbranded medicines.

“During investigation into bogus/misbranded medicine, stock worth ₹7.5 crore was seized, and an accused was arrested from a house in Sigra police station area, in Varanasi district. Meanwhile, information about another case filed with the Bargarh police station in Orissa came to the fore. Two accused had supplied bogus/misbranded drugs to a medical agency in Jarsuguda in Orissa. Police from Orissa were looking for accused in Varanasi,” said a press statement from the UP Special Task Force.

Based upon the input, UPSTF team led by STF ASP Vinod Kumar Singh arrested two accused and recovered bogus/misbranded medicine worth ₹25 lakh in 30 cartons kept in a house under the Sarnath police station, in Varanasi. “The accused used to get the stock from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and supplied it to different states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa,” the press statement read.

“The second raid in April was on the basis of the work done upon inputs from the first raid in March. Right from surveillance to follow up of the information brought results,” said SK Chaurasia, Drugs Controlling and Licensing Authority, Uttar Pradesh.

He said, “Now our teams along with teams from the police department are working on information to find out in which other states these accused supplied medicine and who all are involved in the racket.”