Uttarakhand’s food safety and drug administration department seized a large quantity of suspected counterfeit medicines, packaging material and equipment allegedly used for manufacturing and packaging drugs during a raid at a house in Dehradun’s East Hope Town area on Wednesday, police said.
Event Context
The operation was conducted in coordination with the Uttar Pradesh Drug Control Department and local police as part of a probe into an alleged inter-state counterfeit medicine network.
Officers said preliminary investigations had indicated possible links to an inter-state network and that further investigation was underway to identify those involved in the alleged racket.
The raid was carried out at a house in Devipur village in the Parwal area of East Hope Town following information received by the department. During the search, officers recovered medicines bearing the names of reputed pharmaceutical companies, along with packaging material and machinery allegedly used in their manufacture.
The seized stock included medicines carrying the names of companies such as Intas, MacLeods and Dr Reddy’s. Among the medicines recovered were Gabapin-100, Zoryl M2 and Cefolac-200, officers said.
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According to the officers, the house owner said that some rooms in the building were rented out. Documents and other material recovered from the premises are being examined as part of the investigation, officers said.
Senior drug inspector Manendra Singh Rana and drug inspector Vinod Jagudi are initiating legal proceedings in the case, while suspects are being questioned, officers said.
After a preliminary investigation revealed links with other states, Uttarakhand is coordinating with the Uttar Pradesh Drug Control Department to trace the wider network and establish the source and distribution chain of the suspected counterfeit medicines.
Additional commissioner Tajbar Singh Jaggi said efforts to combat counterfeit medicines were being strengthened through greater coordination between drug control authorities in different states. He said decisions in this regard were taken at a recent all-India meeting of drug controllers held in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu.
“The strategy includes regular sharing of information about suspicious activities, counterfeit drug networks and accused persons among drug control authorities. Such coordination is aimed at enabling agencies to act quickly against networks operating across state borders,” he said.
