(Image source from: TOI.in)
Three months after the uncovering of a fraudulent cancer medication operation, the Delhi Police's charge sheet has identified eight patients who consumed the counterfeit drugs, according to a report. Tragically, one of these individuals passed away. The accused individuals were employed at prominent hospitals in Delhi and Gurgaon, the report noted. The chargesheet alleges that the suspects obtained empty vials of essential medications from healthcare workers, filled them with fake substances, and then sold them through pharmacies and online platforms. The police seized over 140 vials of the counterfeit drug, worth approximately Rs 4 crore. Among the traced patients were a man from Uzbekistan who purchased six injections for Rs 5.92 lakh, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir who bought two injections for Rs 1.80 lakh, and a person from Haryana who acquired six injections for Rs 5.67 lakh. Additionally, a woman from Chandigarh purchased ten injections for her mother at Rs 13.50 lakh, and a resident of Punjab bought twelve injections for his mother for Rs 16 lakh.
A woman from Chandigarh purchased ten injections worth Rs 13.50 lakh for her elderly grandmother, while a man from West Bengal bought twenty-four injections for his father at a cost of Rs 24 lakh. The charge sheet also highlighted a case from Bihar's Madhubani, where a man's wife, who was battling mouth and lung cancer, was receiving treatment at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Buddha Cancer Hospital in Patna. Upon being advised to use Keytruda injections, the man acquired four of them for Rs 3.60 lakh from an online contact named Love Narula. Tragically, after the administration of two injections, the patient's condition deteriorated, leading to her death on September 11, 2022. The investigation revealed that four of the twelve accused individuals were employed in the oncology departments of prominent cancer hospitals in Delhi and Gurgaon, with two of them working as pharmacists at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute. Other suspects were employed at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Millennium Cancer Center in Gurgaon, and Venkateshwar Hospital in Delhi. The criminal operation involved buying empty vials for Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000, refilling them with counterfeit substances, and selling them for Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 through pharmacies and online platforms.
The investigation revealed that the fake medications were virtually identical to the genuine products manufactured by the company. This evidence corroborated the claims that the accused individuals had improperly obtained the drugs from their workplaces in order to sell them for personal gain. The charge sheet further detailed that, in addition to supplying the counterfeit injections to distributors, the accused also utilized the online business platform Indiamart to advertise and facilitate the sale of the fraudulent products, with seven of them registering accounts on the site for this purpose.
