Ten individuals, including two doctors, have been arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch for allegedly manufacturing and marketing fake liposomal amphotericin-B injections, which are used in the treatment of black fungus.

Police officials have recovered more than 3,283 fake vials of amphotericin B, remdesivir, and other injections from Dr. Altamas Hussain’s home from Nizamuddin West. Officials said that Dr. Hussain is the head of the black-marketing operation. He completed his diploma in Neurology from AIIMS and is also the National CEO at Hyatt Health Insurance & Pharmacy.

Monika Bhardwaj, DCP Crime Branch, mentioned that the Drug Control Department was informed about a man, Mayank Taluja, aged 25 years, who was selling injections meant to treat black fungus at high rates at Jamia. The team found a delivery executive, named Waseem Khan, aged 30, at Jamia Metro station and arrested him. He was sent by a man named Faizal Yaseen, aged 21 years, who worked as a salesman at Al Khidmat Medicos. 

Police arrested the owner of the company, Shoaib Khan, along with two salesmen, Yaseen and Afzal, for black-marketing. Ten fake vials were recovered from their store. Taluja, a person who came to receive the payment, was also arrested.

During interrogation, the accused stated that a medical store named Mediiz Health Connect in Saket provided the fake vials. Shivam Bhatia, the manager of the store was also arrested. He told the police that he supplied the injections to his sources, who then sold themto patients and families in need.

The WhatsApp chats from the phones of the accused revealed the involvement of Dr. Amir and Faizan, the owner and director of Mediiz Health Connect, respectively.

The police discovered that the injections were manufactured at Dr. Hussain’s house. His brother Aftab was also arrested in the case and a team was sent to Deoria in UP to arrest Dr. Hussain. The police recovered almost 3,283 vials of injections from his house in Delhi with remdesivir and amphotericin tags on them.

The samples were then sent to the Drug Control Department, which stated that they were of “doubtful quality”. The labels on the vials were from Abbott India company that told police that the vials were not original and that their brand name was misused. The accused also had laptops and printing machines to make labels for the vials.

Police identified Hussain is a history-sheeter who was earlier arrested by Ghaziabad Police in April for black marketing remdesivir injections. He is also involved in 5 other cases of cheating and forgery.

Dr. Hussain’s brother, Aftab, used to supply the vials to Taluja and Mediiz Health Connect and they were then supplied to Al Khidmat stores or directly to customers.

Dr. Hussain was released from jail on 8th May and then he began manufacturing and selling fake vials from his home. In one month, the accused had sold over 400 fake vials and was also able to produce 3,293 vials. All the 10 accused people are booked for cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy by the Crime Branch.

Source: The Indian Express