FIR On Drug Shop Owner After Raids

Patna, 7 Jan 2018: The state drug control administration on Saturday lodged FIR against four people in connection with a raid at the Machhua Toli-based Medicine Pharmaceuticals for manufacturing medicines under the label of Rathi Laboratory in Patna and also selling banned medicines.

The FIR was lodged against Medicine Pharmaceuticals owner Sunil Kumar, his wife Shobha Devi, son Shubham and chemist Arvind Kumar. Sources said employees of Rathi Laboratory told the drug control administration on Saturday that they were nowhere involved in the manufacturing of drugs at Medicine Pharmaceuticals.

Medicine Pharmaceuticals runs from the campus of an MBBS doctor, Krishna Kumar, whose joint family lives on the same campus and Medicine Pharmaceuticals happens to be the family business of the doctor. Drug inspectors and police raided the Machhua Toli-based establishment on Friday and the raids continued on Saturday.

"Drugs manufactured under the label of another company is also categorised as spurious drug. We have lodged an FIR against Medicine Pharmaceuticals at Kadamkuan police station. Apart from sections 419 and 420 of the IPC, section 27(a) and (c) of the Drug Cosmetics Act which deal with the trade of spurious drug have also been imposed against the owners. People found selling spurious drugs can be awarded 10 years' jail term to life imprisonment," said drug inspector Sachhidanand Prasad Vikrant, adding that the team of drug inspectors also found 17,000 vials of Oxytocin injection from the establishment whose sale is prohibited in retail.

"The injection is used by milkmen to increase milk production. It is not for retail use. Only veterinary physicians can use this. The injection should be kept in blister packaging for maintaining its shelf-life but we didn't find any blister packaging of the injection, which also says that it was kept in an improper manner at the retail outlet. We also didn't find a proper licence from the owner," added Vikrant.