CUTTACK: In the fake medicine case, police arrested the two pharmaceutical distributors and produced them in court on Tuesday. The accused duo is Rahul Kyal (25) and Sanjay Jalan (52). Rahul was running his business in the name of his mother in Manik Ghosh Bazar. Similarly, Sanjay had registered his firm at Jaunliapati in his wife’s name.
After seizing huge stock of fake medicines - Telma AM and Telma-40 - used to treat high blood pressure and chronic cardiovascular diseases, the drugs control officials had filed an FIR against the two pharmaceutical distributors in Purighat police station.
“Police have requested the court seeking the duo’s remand for five days for more interrogation. We have also elicited some information on their modus operandi. A special team will be deputed to two source points in Bengaluru and Bihar from where Rahul’s VR Drug Agency and Sanjay’s Puja Enterprises had availed the stock of the fake medicines to identify the manufacturer of the spurious drugs,” said DCP Pinak Mishra.
Both the medicines were allegedly manufactured and sold under the name of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The officials of the pharma company have confirmed that the firm did not manufacture the seized batch of the drugs.
In June last year, the special squad of Directorate of Drugs Control, Odisha raided a wholesale medicine store at Kanika Chowk here and seized 170 boxes of nearly 17,000 fake anti-viral drug ‘Favipiravir’, earlier prescribed for treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The seized Favipiravir tablets were procured from Goutam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. While the printed information on the medicine strips suggested that the drug was manufactured at Solan in Himachal Pradesh, it was found during verification that there was no such medicine manufacturing company there.
Four persons including the pharmaceutical distributor and two medicine representatives were arrested in this connection. However, the manufacturer of the fake Favipiravir tablets is yet to be nabbed.