AFTER the exposé of illegal sale of anti-depressant medicines in the name of ‘Didi Ki Goli’, many shocking facts have come to the notice of the Food and Drugs Administration. Sale of scheduled H1 drug Alprazolam was being done from a phony medical shop on fake bills. ‘Loyal’ customers were getting home delivery of the tablet, the probe has revealed. FDA has registered an FIR against the owner of the shop for misuse of licence and deceiving people. The modus operandi came to light when Drug Inspectors of FDA Nagpur Division kept a vigil on Gandhibagh Dawa Bazar in October and November to monitor the sale of Alprazolam. Gandhibagh Dawa Bazar has stockists and wholesalers supplying medicines to retail counters. As the ‘Didi Ki Goli’ was being sold on retail counters (‘The Hitavada’ has reported on December 12), FDA also started keeping vigil on stockists.

 

After continuous monitoring, officials found one M/s Dayal Remedies had sold (Apcolam Tablet 0.5) Alprazolam 0.5 mg tablets to one M/s S R Pharma, House No 1, Ward No 9, Raut Layout, Mansarovar Colony in large quantity through many bills. “When officials visited S R Pharma, it was found that FDA had not issued any licence to S R Pharma on the address mentioned in the bills. FDA had issued a licence to M/s S R Pharma, owned by Suryarajan Govindrao Pilley on 1660/B Metro Plaza Durga Chowk. The licence numbers are 20B-47801, 21B-47802 issued on November 15, 2014 and the licences are valid till November 12, 2021”, Dr P M Ballal, Assistant Commissioner, informed ‘The Hitavada’. Later, FDA officials reached the address on which licences were issued to Pilley but were shocked to see a board of Rajnandini Developers at Block No 8.

 

Residents told the officials that they had not seen any S R Pharma. Some shop owners said that about a year ago some person had started a medical shop in this area but he left the premises. “One fine day FDA received a letter from Pilley stating that he left the premises in March 2020 as it was a rented place. Pilley also removed the board of S R Pharma and started delivering medicines from his home to the ‘loyal’ customers. Again he submitted his reply to FDA that he took the same premises on rent from the same owner on November 9, 2020,” Dr Ballal said. Pilley submitted the rent agreement made with owner Qutub Jafar Wakil and also the bills of stock he sold between April 2020 and October 2020. Owner of the shop confirmed that the document of rent was fake.

 

On enquiry from purchasers, the officials found that none of them had purchased any medicine from S R Pharma during the said period. All medical stores had declared that they had not purchased any medicine from S R Pharma. Dr Ballal said Pilley had sold scheduled H1 medicine Apcolam (Alprazolam Tablets) which is a tranquilizer and has an addiction potential. Pilley submitted bills of 42,750 tablets of Apcolam (Alprazolam) which he sold to M/s Ashish Medical, Mecosabagh. But the firm never purchased these medicines from S R Pharma. FDA registered an offence against Pilley under section 18(c), r/w 27(d); section 18B r/w 28-A; rule 65 (3), 65 (4) (4) (P) and IPC section 175, 177, 188, 278, 420, 34 and violating IPC 1860 with the FIR 234/20 dated 2/12/42020 at Gittikhadan Police Station.