The city crime branch has arrested a 40-year-old medical store owner from Delhi for allegedly making a copy of anti-coronavirus drug Tocilizumab. The accused identified as Ajay Shamlal Nasa has created a fake Tocilizumab by adding asthma medicines. He charged Rs1 lakh per vial, which cost him not more than Rs 20 per vial.
On August 3, City Crime Branch Unit 9 arrested a person named Azam Nasif Khan (30) for alleged black marketing of anti-COVID drugs. Fifteen vials of Tocilizumab were recovered from him. “We sent the samples of seized drugs to its main manufacturer in Switzerland to check whether it is original or not. They informed us that it's not their medicine,” said Nandakumar Gopale, senior inspector of Crime Branch Unit 9.
During interrogation Khan told the crime branch that he had procured the drug from Nasa, a resident of Govindpuri in New Delhi. A crime branch team then left for Delhi and arrested Nasa.
During his interrogation, Nasa told the investigators that in July he bought an original drug from Gurugram for Rs 58,000 and decided to make a copy of it. He then gave orders of exact similar empty vials of the original drug and also made fake labels and boxes of the original drug.
Investigators were shocked when Nasa revealed that he added injections of Dexona and Deriphyllin with distilled water into the vials. Dexona and Deriphyllin cost Rs 5 respectively. He allegedly sold the fake vials for Rs 1 lakh to needy patients, said an official.
"During the probe it was revealed that the accused had given orders of 3000 vials. We have slapped IPC sections of adulteration of drugs (274), sale of adulterated drugs (275) and causing hurt by means of poison (328), in the main case,” added Gopale. Nasa was produced before court on Wednesday which sent him to police custody till October 3.
