Nagpur spurious drugs case shocker: 'Antibiotics provided to govt hospitals across India were nothing but talcum powder mixed with starch'

NAGPUR: The 1,200-page chargesheet in the spurious drugs supply case, submitted by rural police on September 20, has revealed startling facts. The antibiotics distributed to the govt hospitals were nothing but talcum powder mixed with starch, made in a Haridwar-based laboratory of veterinary medicines.

Apart from the shocking supply of fake drugs to govt hospitals, the racketeers also rampantly used hawala channels to transfer crores of rupees from Mumbai to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The cash was transferred to the racketeers to procure fake medicines, which were supplied across India, including to hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra.

The shocking case had surfaced in December last year after drug inspector Nitin Bhandarkar found that the antibiotics supplied to the rural hospital at Kalmeshwar were fake. The drug inspector of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had registered an offence against the suppliers and distributors at Kalmeshwar police station last year. The firms were also blacklisted by the civil surgeon's office in follow-up action. TOI had then highlighted the action taken by the FDA officials.

The case was taken up for special probe by Rural SP Harssh A Poddar, who handed investigation over to IPS officer Anil Mhaske, posted as SDPO Saoner. After Nagpur rural police investigation started revealing shocking facts, similar cases were registered at Wardha, Nanded, Thane, and elsewhere in Maharashtra against the racketeers.

Mhaske said the offences were initially registered against Hemant Muley, who had participated in the tender to supply medicines to govt hospitals at Nagpur. Apart from Muley, offences were also registered against Mihir Trivedi and Vijay Chaudhury. It is learnt that Chaudhury was already in jail in another similar fraud case when he was taken into custody by the rural police.

Chaudhury's interrogation prompted rural police to undertake an operation in Haryana, after he named one Gagansingh as the supplier of the spurious drugs. "We had gone to Haryana to raid the location and found a salon there," said Mhaske, adding that Chaudhury later also named Saharanpur-based Robin Taneja alias Himanshu and Raman Taneja.

"We reached the Haridwar veterinary laboratory of Amit Dhiman after the Taneja brothers named him. Dhiman was in jail after being arrested by Uttarakhand STF. He was later arrested in our case too," said Mhaske, adding that the racketeers' bank details and transactions showed multi-crore dealings.