Pune: 8 Booked For Supplying Fake Medicines; FDA Seizes ₹2.75 Lakh Stock

Eight people have been booked, including medical shop owners and distributors, for allegedly supplying duplicate medicines across India in a raid conducted by the Food and Drug Administration in Pune, officials said on Friday.

According to the information received, Trypsin Chymotrypsin (Chymoral Forte) tablets were being manufactured and sold nationwide under the name of a Sikkim-based pharmaceutical company.

The accused have been identified as Akshay Hasmukh Punia (Akshaya Pharma, Sadashiv Peth), Amrit Bastimal Jain and Manish Amrut Jain (Argus Medical Distributor, Sadashiv Peth), Rohit Popat Navadkar (Ridhi Pharma, Karve Road, Erandwane), Devendra Yadav (Sinna Pharma, Lucknow), Umang Abhay Rastogi (Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh), Mahesh Garg (Aminabad, Lucknow), and Soni Mahival (Mahival Medico, Gopalganj, Bihar).

The FDA has registered a case against eight individuals and seized counterfeit medicines worth ₹2.75 lakh from Pune medical stores.

Regarding the matter, distributors and medical shop owners from Pune, as well as accused persons from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have been detained, and a case has been lodged by Drug Inspector Shrikant Vishwasrao Patil (39) at the Vishrambaug Police Station.

According to FDA Joint Commissioner Girish Hukre, the department received confidential information that fake Trypsin Chymotrypsin tablets, fraudulently labelled as products of Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Sikkim, were being sold in Pune.

On October 16, 2025, FDA officers collected samples from Akshaya Pharma in Sadashiv Peth. These samples were sent to Torrent Pharmaceuticals for verification. Akshaya Pharma had purchased the stock from Argus Medical Distributor, who had sourced it from Ridhi Pharma, Erandwane. Ridhi Pharma, in turn, had bought the medicines from Sinna Pharma in Lucknow.

Drug Inspector Shrikant Patil and Vivek Khedkar travelled to Lucknow from to November 24 to 27, 2025, to investigate further. Sinna Pharma revealed that they had purchased the medicines from Mahival Medico, Gopalganj, Bihar. ₹2,34,727 was paid in cash to Umang Rastogi, who then handed the money to Mahesh Garg.

Later, the Bihar Assistant Drugs Controller informed the FDA that Mahival Medico’s licence had expired on November 20, 2024, and the shop was no longer operational.

Torrent Pharmaceuticals confirmed that the seized tablets were not manufactured by them and were completely fake.

Following this confirmation, the FDA seized ₹2.75 lakh worth of counterfeit medicines.

DCP Krushikesh Rawale, speaking to The Free Press Journal, said the case has been registered, and a few medical stores have been found selling duplicate medicines. "A joint investigation will be done with the FDA, and action will be taken accordingly," he added.