PATIALA: The Rupnagar Police in Punjab on Friday discovered a multi-crore interstate Remdesivir racket with the arrest of six individuals, included in the production and distribution of replicas of this medication used to deal with Covid-19 patients.
This includes after more than a month-long investigation to the retrieval of Remdesivir vials discovered floating in Bhakra canal.
Approximately 3,000 vials — such as 621 of Remdesivir and also 1456 of Cefoperazone, along with 849 unlabelled vials — were retrieved from Bhakra canal in Salempur along with Balsanda villages at Ropar district on May 6.
A case was filed under sections 188, 278, 468 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 103 of the Trademark Act, Section 43 of the Water (Prevention and Control) Act, Section 7 of the Critical Commodities Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, sections 53, 54, 57 of the Disaster Management Act and Section 27 of the Medicine and Cosmetic Act in Chamkaur Sahib police station.
The accused had been identified as Mohammad Shahwar of village Khudda in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Arshad Khan of Baghpat at UP, Mohammad Arshad of Saharanpur in UP, Pradeep Saroha of Kurukshetra in Haryana, Shah Nazar and Shah Alam, both taxpayers of Behlolpur at Mohali.
The authorities also claimed to have recovered Rs two crore money and four automobiles, such as Maruti Baleno (UP12BB6710), Toyota Etios (UK08AC2561), Hyundai I20 (PB65AU5784) and Maruti Swift Dzire (CH01X7862), in the ownership of the accused apart regaining layouts and packing material utilized for vials.
Ropar senior superintendent of police Akhil Chaudhary, stated,”We’ve included a special investigation group led by SP, headquarters, Ankur Gupta.”