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KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bolangir/Malkangiri (Orissa) : Tension prevailed in Kantabanjhi town of Bolangir district on Sunday after angry people ransacked several medicine shops in protest against the manufacturing and sell of fake medicines in the area. The mob set three medicines shops on fire in their attempt to teach a lesson to those involved in trading of spurious drugs. |
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A police officer displaying seized drugs in Malkangiri
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The administration has deployed additional forces to maintain law and
order in the town, as locals were demanding closing of all medicine
shops that were involved in the fake medicine racket.
At least seven persons, including a doctor, have been taken into
custody in Bolangir district alone following unearthing of the fraud involving
sell of fake medicines in different parts of the State.
The fake medicine racket was unearthed on Friday in Kantabanjhi town
of Bolangir with police tracing an illegal medicine-making unit. The
owner of the unit Shankarlal Agarwal and two of his employees were
booked that day.
In the subsequent raids by Bolangir police, a doctor was taken into custody
from Patnagarh town of the district on Saturday. More arrests of
people involved in the illegal manufacturing and trading of medicines were
likely as raids were continuing in different areas of Bolangir as well as other
districts.
The fake medicines that had been seized following the raids carried
labels of various companies manufacturing medicines in different parts
of the country that have been seized
The Bolangir police are suspecting that the fake medicines manufactured at
Kantabanjhi had also found their way to different places in
Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The fake medicine racket seems to have spread several other districts in
Orissa. The police of Kalahandi district have also started conducting
raids in the district headquarter town of Bhawanipatna. At least 10
medicine shops have already been sealed to verify if those were selling spurious
drugs.
In the southern Orissa district of Malkangiri, the police seized about 60
cartons filled highly priced syrup bottles and tablets on Sunday morning. These fake medicines were recovered from under a culvert near
Kotliguda village, a few km away from Malkangiri town.
"The medicines had been dumped by some shopkeepers dealing in fake
medicines following unearthing of the spurious medicine factory in
Bolangir," police said.
Till date, the district administration of Malkangiri had been sleeping over
complaints that a large number of medicine shops were running in
different areas across the district without having proper registration and
licence.
The police have seized the medicines and further investigations are on
to ascertain the source of the drugs. No one has been arrested in the
case.
Initial reports from different districts indicated that the reach of
the fake medicine trade could have spread to most parts of the State. The truth
may start unraveling in the next few days if the police and health
department joined hands to take on the criminals involved in the trade. |
