In a major crackdown, the Drugs Control Department in a joint raid with the Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police has seized fake medicines to the tune of Rs 10 lakh.
Based on reliable sources, the team conducted raids at Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal and Bihar's Muzaffarpur and busted the major fake medicine manufacturing units which used to supply counterfeit and spurious drugs to Odisha in the name of branded medicines.
The mastermind of the racket Manish Kumar, who hails from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, has been absconding ever since the raid started, reports said.
Duplicate medicine brands that were made by these fake manufacturing units have been seized from the house of Manish with the help of the Muzaffarpur Drugs Control Team. The market value of the seized medicines recovered from Manish’s house is estimated to be around Rs 10 lakh.
Earlier, the STF had conducted raids in Sigra near Varanasi in UP and arrested the kingpin Ashok Kumar from Bulandshahar.
Worth mentioning, counterfeit spurious medicines were seized from a distributor at Town Hall Road under the Purighat police limit of Cuttack. It was learnt that the distributor procured fake medicines from other states and sold them in Silver City and other nearby places.