Police bust illegal medicine supply racket

New Delhi: Delhi Police's crime branch has busted an illegal medicine supply racket in west Delhi and arrested a 47-year-old owner of a medical store who was allegedly selling restricted pharmaceutical drugs, including Tramadol capsules and Codeine cough syrup. His supplier has also been arrested.According to police, acting on a tip-off, a team conducted a raid at the medical store in Paschim Vihar in coordination with the state drug controller. The accused was identified as Vinay Malhotra alias Shivam.
During the search, police recovered 3,360 Tramadol capsules, weighing approximately 2 kg, and 84 bottles of Codeine Phosphate syrup, each of 100 ml, amounting to 8.4 litres. "The accused failed to produce valid bills, prescriptions or any satisfactory explanation for possessing the controlled substances," said DCP (crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav. An FIR under the NDPS Act was registered at the crime branch police station, and Malhotra was arrested. During interrogation, Malhotra told cops that he had procured the seized medicines from one Chandan Bansal, proprietor of a store in Raghubir Nagar. Subsequent investigation revealed that restricted medicines were being supplied without proper requisition and without maintaining legitimate financial records.Police said several firms denied transactions claimed by the supplier, indicating fabrication of records and diversion of controlled drugs. Bansal, 40, a resident of Vishnu Garden and active in the medicine trade for about 15 years, was arrested earlier this week on Wednesday.