CH NEWS

BENGALURU

The Special Investigation Team probing Karnataka’s fake drug racket has detained five people and traced the prime accused abroad.

The prime accused, identified as Prashant, has been traced to a country in the South Caucasus region of Western Asia, and steps are being taken to secure his extradition to India, officials said.

The SIT has conducted searches at more than 10 locations as part of its investigation into the counterfeit medicine network. Viresh Jain, one of the main accused allegedly involved in supplying fake drugs, has also been interrogated.

The probe is continuing to identify other people suspected to be linked to the racket, officials said.

The investigation followed a raid on a farmhouse near Bidadi Toll Gate on August 18 by the Health and Family Welfare Department and Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration. Suspected expired and counterfeit medicines worth around Rs 5 crore were seized.

According to Health and Family Welfare Minister U.T. Khader, the accused allegedly procured inexpensive bulk formulations from manufacturing centres in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh. These were allegedly refilled into new vials at the Bidadi facility and falsely labelled as premium imported medicines of multinational pharmaceutical companies.

The medicines were reportedly intended for intensive care units and patients with serious ailments.

Khader said the suspected network was involved in supplying counterfeit cancer drugs and critical-care injections to nearly 90 hospitals and clinics across Bengaluru.