Couple caught from Punjab for supplying spurious medicines to Uttarakhand and six States

PIONEEREDGE NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun

The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a couple from Zirakpur, Punjab on charges of selling spurious medicines of branded companies. The accused, identified as Pradeep Kumar and his wife Shruti Dawar, allegedly supplied spurious medicines from their medical store AP Medicos in Panipat to Uttarakhand and six other States.

The senior superintendent of police of STF Navneet Singh Bhullar said that the investigation began after the arrest of Santosh Kumar in June 2025, who was caught with counterfeit wrappers, outer boxes, labels and QR codes of branded medicines in Selaqui, Dehradun. The case was later transferred to the STF and so far, 12 people have been arrested in this case, including five company owners and heads.

According to the SSP, Pradeep started the spurious medicine business in 2023 with one of the accused Naveen Bansal. He also opened a firm in his wife’s name, Sai Pharma. The counterfeit outer boxes were made in Selaqui and transported to Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, through V-Trans transport company. They used to arrange aluminium foils with branded medicine prints from Baddi, Himachal Pradesh and medicines manufactured in factories in Dehradun and Haridwar were packed with blister machines in Bhiwadi.

The packed medicines were then supplied to various States with the help of a vehicle linked to accused Pankaj Sharma of Noble Pharmacy, Panchkula, Bhullar claimed. He informed that Pradeep also allegedly ran Care Point Medical Store in partnership at a hospital in Dehradun, where he supplied spurious medicines. “In 2021, Panipat Police had jailed him for selling fake Remdesivir injections during the Covid period. Bank records of Sai Pharma revealed transactions of about Rs 14 crore in the past two years linked to counterfeit medicine trade.

STF is continuing its investigation to trace the supply network and financial transactions related to the case,” he added.