Meds for defence staff were sold to civilians

New Delhi: A probe has been launched by the Delhi Police in a case where two brothers were found selling cancer medication meant for defence personnel in the open market.

The investigators have now started probing the role of hospital and dispensary employees in this racket.

The police claimed on Monday that they had arrested the siblings, identified as Dhruv Nath Jha and Om Nath Jha. They ran a chemist shop in Laxmi Nagar area. Cancer medicines worth Rs 30 lakh which were meant for sale in Defence and ESI Dispensaries were recovered from their possession.

"Some hospital staff and people working at the dispensaries meant for defence personnel are under investigation," an official said. Further, investigators suspected that other members of the racket might have forged doctors' prescriptions of some defence personnel and added cancer medication to it.

"After forging the prescription, suspects send it to the main supplier, who unknowingly might have sent all the medicine as per the forged prescription. The accused first took out the cancer medicine from the supply and then gave it to chemist shops across the city," the officer said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Jasmeet Singh said that from both accused medicine worth Rs 30 lakh were recovered.

"They were selling the medicine online and from their shop," said the DCP. The medication was being supplied from Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Ghaziabad and Noida at throwaway prices. A team from the Anti-Auto Theft Squad (AATS) led by Inspector Dinesh Arya made the arrest on Friday night.

Police said that a lot of this cancer medication cost more than Rs 1 lakh and the accused were selling it at cheap prices and yet maintaining a profit margin of more than Rs10,000 on every sale. The accused also stocked a few medicines for future sale.

"They were already running a chemist shop so they were in touch with some cancer patients to whom they have been supplying these medicines. The customers informed other patients about the accused shop. The other people came in contact with the accused," an officer said. When asked how the racket was getting access to highly controlled cancer medication, another official said that in some cases, agents from Mumbai would supply the medicine through courier while in other cases few persons, acting as carriers delivered the contraband product. Police added that they also recovered the chemicals that the accused were using to remove the official ESI stamps on the packaging of the medication.