By Prateek Chauhan
In a major crackdown on the illegal trade of counterfeit medicines, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police has busted an inter-state racket involved in the manufacturing, relabeling and distribution of spurious life-saving drugs, arresting four accused and unearthing a clandestine pharmaceutical unit operating from North Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar.
The racket, according to investigators, had spread its network across Delhi-NCR and several northeastern states, circulating fake and illegally diverted medicines including rabies vaccines, insulin, anti-snake venom, hepatitis vaccines, human albumin and cancer treatment drugs — posing a grave threat to public health.
According to DCP Crime Pankaj Kumar, “the accused have been identified as Manoj Kumar Jain (56), alleged kingpin of the syndicate, Raju Kumar (57), Vikram Singh alias Sunny (32), and Vatan (35). Police said the gang was involved in procuring government-supplied medicines from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, removing official markings and relabeling them for sale in the open market at huge profits”.
Acting on intelligence inputs, the Eastern Range-I team of Crime Branch, under the supervision of ACP Sunil Srivastava, launched a surveillance operation on April 22 to trace illegal trade of government-supplied and counterfeit medicines in Delhi. During the operation, police received specific information regarding a highly organised network engaged in diversion and illegal resale of medicines meant exclusively for government hospitals and dispensaries, DCP said.
Following the tip-off, Crime Branch officials, along with Drug Inspectors from the Drugs Control Department and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), raided a premises in Indra Vikas Colony near Batra Cinema in Mukherjee Nagar. Manoj Kumar Jain was apprehended from the spot while allegedly operating the illegal unit.
During the raid, investigators recovered massive quantities of suspected counterfeit and illegally relabeled medicines along with packaging material, fabricated labels, raw pharmaceutical substances and four packaging machines allegedly used in the illegal operation.
Among the major recoveries were nearly 8,000 HepBest tablets, over 14,000 Lenvatinib cancer capsules, 953 rabies vaccine vials, 1,500 Vitamin D3 injections, 315 insulin cartridges, 2,500 Hepatitis-B vaccines and more than 1,200 units of Human Albumin products. Police also recovered anti-snake venom injections, antibiotics and thousands of loose tablets suspected to be repackaged for illegal sale.
Officials said the seized stock is valued at nearly ₹6 crore in the market.
Investigators revealed that the syndicate had developed a sophisticated supply chain stretching from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi and further into Kolkata, Guwahati, Imphal and other northeastern regions. The accused allegedly altered labels of government-supplied medicines and sold them as genuine commercial products.
Police further suspect that the gang was also illegally manufacturing critical drugs, including Human Albumin, inside the Mukherjee Nagar facility under unhygienic and unauthorised conditions.
The Crime Branch said preliminary investigation has also pointed towards the use of hawala channels for routing proceeds generated through the illegal pharmaceutical trade. Financial transactions linked to the racket are currently under scrutiny.
All four accused are in custody and further investigation is underway. DCP Pankaj said, more arrests and recoveries are likely as investigators attempt to identify the wider network of suppliers, distributors and financial handlers linked to the operation.
Central Drugs Standard Control Organisationcounterfeit medicinescrime branchDelhi PoliceDelhi-NCRDrugs Control Departmentfake drugsIndialife-saving drugs