BENGALURU: Another key accused in the fake medicines racket, Balasubramanian, has been arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Chennai. The arrest marks a significant development in the case following the arrest of the alleged kingpin, Prashanth Ranjan, police said on Wednesday.
The arrest of the 7th accused, Balasubramanian, comes following the questioning of kingpin Prashanth Ranjan, who provided further details about the network and the involvement of others in the alleged fake drug manufacturing and distribution racket, along with other clues gathered during the investigation.
After being produced before the court, Balasubramanian was remanded in SIT custody for seven days for further interrogation.
Balasubramanian, identified as a pharma partner based in Chennai, was a partner of Prashanth Ranjan in DM Pharma, a pharmaceutical company. The investigation has revealed that he allegedly played a key role in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit medicines. The SIT is interrogating the accused to gather information about the network involved in the crime.
Earlier, the SIT arrested Prashanth Ranjan Babu at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Monday, after he returned to India from Azerbaijan.
According to police, Prashanth had allegedly fled to Azerbaijan following the exposure of the fake medicine network and was traced there by the investigating team. Following pressure from the SIT, he returned to India and was taken into custody upon his arrival at the airport early Monday.
The investigators are probing the extent of the fake medicine network, the locations where the alleged manufacturing and distribution activities were carried out, and how long the racket had been operating.
It can be noted that a major fake medicine scam centred around Bengaluru involved the seizure of counterfeit, expired, and relabeled life-saving, ICU, and cancer drugs valued at over Rs 5 crore. The SIT arrested a local pharmacy owner and found that the illicit network supplied compromised drugs to over 90 hospitals and clinics.
Later, the SIT conducted raids which expanded across multiple locations in Karnataka, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) has cancelled 16 drug licenses and suspended eight others belonging to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors tied to the scam.
Among the suspended licences was the Pfizer C&F (Carrying and Forwarding) Depot. Karnataka Health Minister UT Khader stated that the agency failed to cooperate with investigators or provide the reference standards needed to labtest the chemical components of the seized fake medications.
As counterfeit cancer and critical care drugs were distributed, the
Health Department is actively trying to track down affected patients to evaluate their health status.
The Health Department has strongly urged the public to check labels carefully for suspicious packaging and report any non-scanning QR codes directly to Drug Enforcement authorities.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the Drugs Control Department arrested the pharmacy owner, Veeresh Kumar Jain of Krupa Healthcare in Bengaluru and seized spurious medicines worth over Rs 5 crore.