Six apprehended as Rs 2 cr spurious medicines seized

new delhi: The Delhi Police has busted an organised interstate racket involved in manufacturing and supplying spurious life-saving medicines, arresting six persons and seizing counterfeit drugs worth around Rs 2 crore, an official said on Sunday.

During the operation, the police also exposed a network of fake GST firms used to generate bogus invoices and launder proceeds of the illegal trade, with investigators estimating the fake billing to the tune of nearly Rs 50 crore.

According to the police, the racket was engaged in large-scale manufacturing, storage and distribution of counterfeit Schedule-H drugs, which are commonly prescribed for ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, and liver disorders, posing a serious risk to public health.

The accused have been identified as Nikhil Arora alias Sunny, a wholesale medicine dealer based in Shahdara, Shivam Tyagi and Mayank Aggarwal, both suppliers from Uttar Pradesh, Mohit Kumar Sharma, a key supplier from Uttarakhand, and Shahrukh and Rahul, who allegedly operated fake GST firms to facilitate the illegal trade.

“The case came to light following specific inputs, after which a raid was conducted on March 11 in Bihari Colony in Shahdara. During the operation, Arora, who ran a wholesale medical shop in Bhagirathi Palace, was apprehended,” a senior police officer said.

He said that over 1.2 lakh counterfeit tablets and capsules were recovered during the raid, including fake versions of widely used medicines such as Rabemac-DSR, Telma-AM, Sporolac-DS, Signoflam, Chymoral Forte, Ursocol-300, Gluconorm, Jalra-50 and several others. These medicines are frequently prescribed and consumed by patients suffering from chronic illnesses, the officer said.

“The circulation of counterfeit drugs of this nature can have severe and potentially fatal consequences,” he added.

Further investigation revealed that the accused had developed a modus operandi to evade detection. The counterfeit medicines were supplied using fake invoices generated through fictitious GST firms that existed only on paper. All these shell entities were created to conceal the actual nature of business operations, evade tax scrutiny and lend a semblance of legitimacy to illegal transactions, the officer said. “The financial trail was deliberately routed through these fake firms to mask both the origin and destination of the spurious medicines,” the officer said.

Shahrukh and Rahul ran a fake GST network using shell firms, generating Rs 50 crore in bogus invoices, police said. Probe traced the racket to an illegal Muzaffarnagar unit, recovering raw materials, machinery and fake packaging. The unlicensed operation spanned multiple states; one accused has prior NCB cases.