The investigation into the the medicine scam of 12 batches has traced one batch of medicines to Pathankot Military Hospital in Punjab.
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“Prima facie, we believe, one batch of medicines was leaked from Pathankot Military Hospital by an insider. By interrogating each accused, we found the reverse trail,” a source from the Crime Branch said.
Tushar Doshi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, said, “We have sent a letter to Pathankot Military Hospital about our findings. They have assured us of an internal inquiry to find the culprit.”
The latest arrest made by the Crime Branch was from Jammu. The accused identified as Dinesh Mahajan, who was nabbed in April, revealed that he used to buy Galvus 50 mg, manufactured by Novartis, from someone from the military hospital.
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Mr. Mahajan used to further give it to his employee, who is yet to be apprehended, and he used to then give it to Royal Pharma in Pune. Royal Pharma used to sell it to Samarth medicine distributors in Sector 5, Sanpada. Mr. Mahajan used to sell the medicine for ₹240, while Samarth distributors would sell it for ₹350.
“While there used to be no bills for the transaction from the military hospital to Samarth distributors, the further deals that happened from Samarth had proper bills with GST. Hence the distributors who purchased from Samarth are not accused in the case as they had no idea from where it came. Samarth used to wipe the stamp which said ‘for Defence only’ on the medicine strips using a thinner,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the investigations have also revealed a different trail from Royal Pharma to Delhi and Agra, and they are yet to reach a conclusion of its origin. “Every batch of medicines, originally, belong to government hospitals. Of the 12 batches, we have found the origin of one batch and will take at least six more months to find the trail of the remaining batches,” the source said.
Statements of all the nine accused arrested till now have been recorded before the magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
On March 6, Crime Branch officers arrested Mahesh Shivshankar Nagansure (36), Sachin Vishnu Vadaskar (29) and Sachin Puruahottam Baldava (37), who were employed by Samarth distributors, after the FDI, during a raid, found 12 batches of medicines meant for government hospitals. The accused told the police that they received medicines from Pune.
The team then visited Pune and arrested Neerajkumar Jitendrakumar Singh (26) of Royal Pharma. He revealed that he received medicines from Sanjay Fattechand Garg (49), who ran Vishal Pharma in Delhi, and Mr. Mahajan from Jammu. The police then arrested Tarun Bishandas Madan (30), who ran Satguru Pharma at Sonipath in Haryana. The probe led the police to Agra, and Harprasad Shyambabu Gupta (47) of Hindustan Medico distributors and Shivam Anil Gupta (26) from Uttar Pradesh were arrested.