The Karnataka Government on Thursday constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to take over the investigation into the alleged spurious drug racket uncovered in Bengaluru South district, with Joint Commissioner of Police (West) C Vamshikrishna appointed as its head.
The SIT will function under the supervision of the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, according to a government order.
The team was constituted following the seizure of spurious and allegedly relabelled medicines worth Rs 4.91 crore from an unlicensed repacking and relabelling unit at a farmhouse near Bidadi during a raid on Tuesday evening.
Officials found that lower-cost and generic medicines from other states were refilled into new vials and relabelled at the farmhouse to mimic expensive brands and imported drugs. They also seized 30 boxes of expired medicines, leading to suspicion that the expired drugs were being reintegrated into the supply chain.
A day after the raid, Health and Family Welfare Minister U T Khader had said the unlicensed repacking and relabelling unit was part of a nationwide racket. “The drugs were procured at low prices from fake drug manufacturing units in Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. After relabeling them, the spurious drugs were sold to shops and hospitals. Even medicines given to patients in ICUs were mislabeled,” he had told reporters.
The SIT team comprises Shiva Prakash Devaraju, Bengaluru Superintendent of Police; Lokesh B Jagalasar, CID Superintendent of Police; assistant drug controllers Manjunath Reddy and Namrata Hallur of Bengaluru South district, and drug inspector Neha Murki.
It will also investigate other related criminal cases registered at police stations elsewhere in the state. The investigating officers have also been empowered to submit police reports before the competent courts.
Khader said the SIT will probe the racket’s distribution network and the hospitals and ICUs where the medicines may have been administered.
The team will use resources available at the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner’s Office and the Bengaluru South District Police Office, and may be provided with additional personnel as required. It has been directed to periodically submit progress reports to the Director General and Inspector General of Police through the ADGP, Law and Order, and submit its final investigation report before the competent court.
The police have arrested only one person so far, while two others were being questioned. The alleged main accused, Prashanth, a medical representative, remains at large. According to investigators, he had allegedly been running the repacking and relabelling operation from the leased 10-acre property for about one and a half years.
