CHENNAI: Twelve persons involved in smuggling of drugs into India without registration certificate and import licence from Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Chennai, were remanded to judicial custody for 15 days by a CBI special court.
CBI sources told Express that of the 12 arrested, four are importers of the drug from China while the eight are custom house agents. They include Ramlal Jain, proprietor of M/s. Kawarlal& Co, and Kawarlal & Sons, Chennai, Sohan Chand proprietor of M/s Antonie & Becourel Organic Co., Chennai, Sachiv V Jain, proprietor of Excipient and Sanjay Thanvi, proprietor Howitzer Organic Chennai.
This comes after Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) detected cases of import of drugs from unregistered sources from China. The cases were handed over to CBI for investigations: Drug imports are only allowed from companies whose manufacturing units are registered with the Indian drug regulator.
Sources said that many of these imported drugs are labelled as chemicals and are cleared by the customs authorities without the checks that typical drug consignments undergo. It is learnt that the four proprietors have smuggled 425 varieties of drugs from 2011 to 2012.
The figures or the worth of drugs smuggled from china into India is yet to be ascertained, sources said.
For the purpose of grant of Registration Certificates, the manufacturer abroad or his agent in India is required to make application to the office of Drug Controller General (India) in Form-40 along with specified fees which could be a minimum of $1,500 besides power of attorney in favour of the agent in India and the information and undertakings as specified in Schedule D(I) and D(II) of the said Rules duly signed by or on behalf of the manufacturer.
Thereafter, the importer is required to obtain the import licence from the said authority for the import of the drugs registered for import.