Bengaluru: Generic medicines given the identity of expensive branded antibiotics, including Pfizer products, have triggered an Enforcement Directorate crackdown in Bengaluru. The agency searched five premises linked to the accused in the counterfeit medicine racket recently, freezing bank accounts containing around Rs 9 lakh and seizing digital devices, records and other incriminating documents.The searches were conducted under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of an ongoing money-laundering investigation arising from an FIR registered at Tavarekere police station in Bengaluru South district on Aug 18.During the raid at a residential property in CK Tandya village, the accused were found storing medicines and pharmaceutical drugs without valid licences and replacing the labels on the stored medicines.Probe revealed the accused, R Prashanth alias Prashanth Rajan Babu alias Prashanth Doreswamy, a medical representative, arranged a farmhouse near Bidadi to manufacture, repackage and relabel medicines without a drug licence or permit. Cheap bulk formulations sourced from manufacturing centres in various states were repackaged into new vials and fraudulently relabelled as expensive Pfizer antibiotics, including Zavicfta and Emblaveo.These medicines were then distributed through M/s DM Pharmaceuticals and supplied to M/s Krupa Healthcare. Subsequently, M/s Krupa Healthcare supplied the medicines to other pharmaceutical entities and hospitals, along with genuine medicines, to avoid detection.During the searches, ED froze bank accounts belonging to the accused, Veeresh Kumar Jain alias Veeresh Kumar, owner of M/s Krupa Healthcare near Minerva Circle in Bengaluru, containing around Rs 9 lakh. The agency also seized digital devices, records and incriminating documents. The special investigation team and the drug control authority had earlier seized drugs worth close to Rs 4.9 crore.
