Seven booked for selling scarce Covid medicine in black

TNN | Jul 12, 2020, 04:00 IST

The accused were arranging the injections to be brought on forged papers

Surat: Seven persons were booked by Umra police on Friday for allegedly selling high demand scarce medicine for treatment of critical Covid-19 patients in black.
The accused were arranging the injections to be brought from Ahmedabad on forged papers and selling it at inflated prices of Rs 57,000 for one vial against the actual MRP of Rs 40,545.
A complaint was lodged in this regard by Mahesh Italiya, drug inspector, in FDCA, Surat, after the Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) laid a trap and started investigation.
Police booked two residents of Surat, owner of Sarthak Pharma, Uma Saket Kejriwal and Mitul Shah, owner of New Shanti Medicines. The others are Amit Manchharamani, Ghanshyam Vyas, Abhishek, Bhavesh Solanki of Dhruvi Distributors, four from Ahmedabad and a resident of Mumbai, Bhavesh.
The accused were booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code including 406 (criminal breach of trust), conspiracy and others. They were also booked under Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Essential Commodities Act as well.
On June 19, FDCA had laid a trap at Sarthak Pharma on Vesu-Abhva Road following specific information. “FDCA had received specific information about black marketing of the medicine Tocilizumab by Sarthak Pharma. We sent a dummy buyer and after few days they arranged the injection. We seized total three injections from them which they were selling at Rs 57,000 for each,” said R M Patel, assistant commissioner, FDCA, Surat.
Investigation by FDCA revealed that Kejriwal bought the injection from Shah who bought it from Manchharamani. Working for the syndicate Vyas had arranged positive report of Covid patient and prescription as well. “FDCA’s Ahmedabad office is investigating the case now since it is a huge racket,” Patel added.
“Police registered the offence based on the investigation done by FDCA. Police will now arrest the accused. The accused were not found when police went to arrest them,” said M L Salunke, police inspector, Umra police station.