Bhubaneswar : The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha crime branch on Thursday arrested one more person, the prime accused in the trading of fake Favipiravir medicines, used for treatment of Covid patients.
Odisha Director General of Police Abhay said Managing Director of the Medilloyd Medicaments Private Ltd (MMPL) Siba Jena was arrested today and forwarded to court.
STF had arrested three accused, the Director of MMPL and two other key members of the company yesterday.
With the arrest of the prime accused, the number of arrests in the fake drug case went up to four.
Mr Abhay said the STF has been doing a good work and congratulated the officers and others deployed in the work .Sources said the hearing on the bail applications of the accused was adjourned to Monday next.
The STF has frozen Rs 50 lakh kept in the bank accounts of the three accused and the company.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the fake drug case on Jan 14 last after a huge quantity of Favipiravir tablets were seized from the M/S MMPL at Cuttack during a raid by Drug Inspectors on June 11 last.
Later raids were conducted in different chemist shops across the state and some more fake drugs were seized.
Multiple teams were formed to inquire into the incident. At present three teams are conducting investigation into the case in Odisha, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
STF sources said during investigation it was revealed that MMPL conspired to procure the medicine from Max Relief Health Care, Solan, a dubious drug manufacturing company in Himachal Pradesh at Rs 65 per strip of ten tablets and planned to sell it at Rs 1290 per strip.
The Max Relief Health Care company was run by two persons and both of them have already been arrested by Mumbai Police earlier this month and cases have been registered against them.
More Stories
NDA as 15 in Northeast’s 25 seats go to polls: PM
Not Big Fan Impact Player; Its Development of All-Rounders, Says Rohit
Modi will come with hope in 2024: PM