Cancer is another name for death. The treatment of this disease is difficult and is expensive. There is a whole syndicate of pushing ill patients to death and its links have spread to foreign countries. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has registered an FIR exposing one such gang and has arrested at least 12 of its members so far.
The Crime Branch had investigated an organized criminal racket allegedly involved in the manufacturing and sale of cancer and chemotherapy drugs in some hospitals in Delhi-NCR.
Apart from the Crime Branch, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also started investigating the case. Recently, after discovering this gang that has been producing and selling fake cancer medicines, ED had raided 10 places in Delhi-NCR. After registering a case against this gang under Money Laundering, ED has raided many places. During the raid, cash worth Rs 65 lakh was recovered from two locations of the accused and various documents were also recovered. ED has also recovered electronic devices from these locations, which have led to many other shocking revelations.
ED had registered a case and conducted raids
ED has raided the locations of Vifil Jain, Suraj Shot, Neeraj Chauhan, Parvez Malik, Komal Tiwari, Abhinay and Tushar Chauhan in this case. Neeraj Chauhan is a resident of Gurugram, while the rest of the accused are residents of different areas of Delhi. The target of the accused were patients coming from outside Delhi. They especially preyed on patients coming from Haryana, Bihar, Nepal and African countries.
In the ED raid, cash worth Rs 23 lakh has been recovered from a bean bag from the house of one of the accused Suraj Shot. Many objectionable documents regarding movable and immovable property have also been recovered from the accused. ED has registered this case on the basis of the FIR of Crime Branch of Delhi Police. The accused allegedly filled anti-fungal medicines in empty vials and sold them as ‘life-saving’ cancer medicines in India, China and the US at the rate of Rs 1 to 3 lakh per vial.
Delhi Police’s two-year operation
Vifil Jain, the mastermind behind this scam , has not taken any formal education. Neeraj Chauhan, who has a background in medical transcription and oncology management, joined hands with Jain to expand the racket. Parvez, a former pharmacist at a reputed cancer hospital in Delhi, had played an important role in procuring empty vials for this racket.
After a two-year operation, Delhi Police had arrested seven people, including Suraj from West Bengal, the caretaker of the flats used for manufacturing fake medicines. The officials also seized cap-sealing machines, empty vials, packaging boxes and cash from the construction site and the suspects’ residences.
Crime branch had exposed
After receiving information against this gang, the Crime Branch was the first to initiate action. For this, the Crime Branch had also formed a team. The accused also include employees working in some renowned hospitals of Delhi. These people were the important members and they used to provide the vials of used medicines to this gang. These people used to sell the medicine bottles to other gang members after they were empty as they were used by the patients in the hospital.
Hundreds of fake medicines were recovered in the Crime Branch raid
Investigation revealed that medicines were sold to cancer patients. Apart from this, these vials were of medicines of branded companies, in which fake medicines were filled and sold. Two of the accused are employees of Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Rohini. According to the police, both the arrested youths were involved in supplying fake cancer medicines and empty bottles.
Cash medicines of 9 brands were recovered
Police raided two flats in Motinagar and Gurugram and recovered fake medicines of 7 foreign and 2 Indian i.e. 9 brands of chemotherapy used in cancer treatment. Investigation had revealed that Komal Tiwari, in-charge of the chemotherapy unit posted at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Center, and Abhinav Kohli, a nursing employee posted in the same unit, used to provide empty vials of chemotherapy medicines given to the patients in the hospital to their colleagues.
In return, both of them used to take four to five thousand rupees per empty bottle from their associates. These people used to fill anti-fungal medicine in empty bottles and sell it at expensive rates. Antifungal medicine does not have any bad effect on the body, so it does not provide any benefit. It is like water.
Fake medicine syndicate
The investigation revealed that there is a whole syndicate of manufacturing fake cancer medicines and selling them across the country. According to the police, the accused have so far sold fake medicines worth Rs 25 crore. The links of this gang are spread in many states of the country including Delhi as well as abroad.
Aditya Krishna was arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch team on charges of supplying fake cancer medicines in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The team had been camping in the city for two days. Aditya Krishna was directly associated with Neeraj Chauhan and used to supply fake medicines. After purchasing medicines from Neeraj, he used to deliver them to Pune and NCR. Aditya Krishna also has a medicine shop in Muzaffarpur and from there he had maintained a supply chain.
Wide spread business
The crime branch is locating other accused involved in the gang. Besides, they are also finding out how and for how long they were doing business by making fake medicines. At the same time, ED is finding out about the money trail of these accused. Apart from African countries, these gangs used to prey on patients coming for treatment from countries like Nepal.
Delhi Crime Branch had received information that fake cancer medicine was being manufactured in Motinagar area. After this, a team was formed by the Crime Branch. The team raided four places including Motinagar and Gurugram and recovered 140 injection vials of four brands worth Rs 1.75 crore. Many empty vials including Rs 50,000 cash were also found. 137 vials of fake cancer injections, 519 empty sachets and 137 injections of seven international brands were found from the house of Neeraj Chauhan in South City Gurugram, the value of which was estimated at Rs 2.15 crore.
Everyone was shocked when the reality of the person making a big deal out of a bottle of Rs 5000 and fake medicine worth Rs 100 came to light. The stock of medicines was kept in a flat in Gurugram South City. Police suspect that this gang may help them reach their bigger network. How big is this gang? Where did he supply medicines? To which people the medicines were given, these things are being ascertained. The black business of cancer medicines is not limited to Delhi-NCR only, rather its strings are spread across the country. After busting this gang, now preparations are underway to reach its real businessman. At present the investigation of the case is going on.
This is how fake medicine was prepared
This gang was working in a very vicious manner. This work was completed at three levels. Initially, empty bottles of genuine medicines were collected and in this work people working in hospitals were involved, who provided used medicine bottles at a nominal price to the gang making fake medicines.
Then toxic medicines were filled in the same bottle. Now it was packed with stickers and seals of branded companies. Fake cancer medicines prepared in this way were being made available in the market. While hardly Rs 100 was spent in preparing it, an amount of up to Rs 3 lakh was extorted from the people for it. People were taking injections and medicines at the real price and the patients were not even aware that the medicine they were taking was actually no less than poison.
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