Man arrested for alleged involvement in production and circulation of spurious medicines

PIONEEREDGE NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun

Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) arrested Vijay Kumar Pandey (58), the alleged head of a network involved in the production and circulation of spurious medicines in Uttarakhand and other States. The STF arrested the accused after reports surfaced that fake life-saving drugs were being manufactured and sold in the market, creating a risk to public health and causing significant revenue losses.

The STF senior superintendent of police Navneet Singh Bhullar said that the investigation was handed over to the STF after a large quantity of counterfeit wrappers, labels, outer boxes and QR codes of well-known pharmaceutical companies were recovered from Santosh Kumar, who had been arrested on June 1.

Following this, the STF took five persons including Santosh Kumar, Naveen Bansal, Aditya Kala, Devi Dayal Gupta and Pankaj Sharma into custody. The SSP said that during questioning, accused Bansal disclosed that branded details and QR codes were printed on aluminum foil to prepare counterfeit strips of medicines.

The printing was arranged through Pandey, owner of SV Foil Company in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. He had also provided a SIM card obtained with a fake identity in 2021, which was used for running the network. Bhullar said that Pandey was arrested from Baddi on Wednesday.

He admitted to printing aluminium foil rolls with branded details and QR codes as instructed by Bansal and another associate, Pradeep Kumar. Further inquiries are being carried out to identify other people and companies connected with the racket, the SSP said. His criminal background is being verified from other states, he added.