A scandal involving sale of spurious and expired drugs has surfaced in India's southern state Tamil Nadu after police and health officials raided shops across the state and seized such drugs worth crores of rupees.
Around 1,000 pharmaceutical godowns and shops in various districts were raided in last couple of weeks, police said.
Cases had been registered against firms and distributors under Drugs and Cosmetics Act and provisions of the IPC. The Crime Branch-CID wing of the state police is continuing the crackdown and Chennai Police has formed special teams to look into the cases, a senior police official said.
State government was planning to expand the investigation to neighbouring states also as the involvement of an inter-state nexus was suspected in the spurious drug sale.
On getting complaints in this regard, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi gave strict instructions to police and the Drug Control Authority (DCA) officials to conduct raids to
prevent its sale.
DCA Director M Bhaskaran said the raids would continue and the department was in the process of cancelling licenses of medical stores which sold such medicines.
"We have found several thousands of fake cough syrup bottles, manufactured under the label of a leading company.
First such case was brought to our attention during raid of a godown in Cuddalore district," he said.
One dealer, believed to be a key link in the racket, had surrendered before a local court and confessed to having procured the drugs from the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.