Two held for selling fake blood pressure medicines valued at Rs 9 lakh

Thane, Feb 18 (PTI) Police in Maharashtra’s Thane district have arrested two persons for allegedly selling counterfeit blood pressure medicines valued at Rs 9 lakh that imitated the name and design of a widely prescribed brand, an official said on Wednesday.

According to a release by the Kalyan police, the accused sold fake “Telma AM tablets (Telmisartan 40 mg and Amlodipine 5 mg)” using the licence of “Shriram Pharma”, falsely projecting them as products of the original manufacturer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) carried out a raid on January 20 and seized 2,795 strips of fake “Telma AM” tablets valued at Rs 8,94,400, it said.

Following the FDA complaint, a case was registered at Manpada police station in Dombivali under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945.

The prime accused, identified as Pankaj Radheshyam Upadhyay (33), a distributor and medical representative residing in Dombivli East, was arrested on January 21.

“The accused (Upadhyay) was aware that the said medicine was fake and that its consumption could pose a serious threat to human life, yet he continued to distribute it,” it said.

During the investigation, police learnt that the stock of duplicate medicines had allegedly been supplied by Vivek Ajaykumar Rai (35), a resident of Kandivali East in Mumbai. He was arrested on February 16, police said.

Further investigation is underway under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) Atul Zende and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Dombivli Division) Suhas Hemade, the release added. PTI COR NR