STF in Mumbai to probe fake drugs case

BHUBANESWAR: A team of investigators from the special task force (STF) of the state Crime Branch left for Mumbai on Friday to investigate the alleged sale of spurious anti-Covid drugs in Odisha. The decision was taken following the recent arrest of one Sudeep Mukherjee, believed to the mastermind of the interstate racket supplying fake medicines to different states, including Odisha.
The Odisha drugs control authorities, who were earlier tipped off by the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) about the spurious medicines being circulation in different states, had seized huge stock of Favipiravir (brand name Favimax-400) tablets from a wholesaler in Cuttack.Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had on June 14 ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the fake drugs trade.
The seized tablets in Cuttack were supplied by Noida-based Max Relief Healthcare. Mukherjee’s claim that he had been manufacturing the medicines in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, subsequently turned out to be false as the government clarified that no such company exists there.
“Our personnel will probe all angles and talk to Mumbai Police as well as Maharashtra FDA to understand the modus operandi and the alleged nexus. We will seek Mukherjee’s police remand for interrogation,” Crime Branch additional director general Yeshwant Jethwa said.
The STF would also like to know the role of another accused, Sandeep Mishra, who too was arrested by the Mumbai Police recently. Mishra, a close aide of Mukherjee, was an employee of a pharma laboratory at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Mukherjee had allegedly manufactured and paced the fake medicines in the Meerut lab. Sources said the duo had been supplying fake medicines to at least 14 states.
The STF said the owner of the Cuttack-based company, Medilloyd Medicament Private Limited, which had received the spurious drugs from Mukherjee, is on the run. Though he had earlier feigned ignorance about Mukherjee’s illegal trade, the STF strongly suspects both of them were involved in selling fake medicines in the market.