New Delhi, 5 April. Delhi Police has busted an organized gang involved in misappropriation and sale of government medicines meant for free distribution in government hospitals. The Crime Branch arrested five members of this racket and recovered two vehicles used to transport drugs worth approximately Rs 70 lakh.

According to Delhi Police, this operation was done under Crime Branch’s NR-II. The team was led by Sub-Inspector Pritam Chand under the supervision of ACP Girish Kaushik and led by Inspector Neeraj Sharma on the basis of specific information collected by the team.

5 accused in police custody

The accused have been identified as 53-year-old Neeraj Kumar and 47-year-old Sushil Kumar. Both are residents of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Another accused, Laxman Mukhiya, 48, is a resident of Delhi. They were caught on April 2 near Rajendra Bazaar in Tis Hazari while carrying a huge consignment of medicines in a Mahindra Champion Tempo and Baleno car. Police said the seized drugs were clearly marked as government supply, not for sale, indicating their trafficking in the open market.

During continuous interrogation of the police, Neeraj Kumar revealed that he was operating an illegal supply chain for the last one to one and a half years. Was obtaining medicines through a network of insiders and distributing them in several cities through brokers. Based on his disclosure, two other accused – Binesh Kumar (54), pharmacist-cum-storekeeper at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and Prakash Mehta (30), contractual assistant there, were arrested.

This is how medicines were being misappropriated

Investigation revealed that both of them played a key role in misappropriation of medicines from the hospital stock by falsifying records and facilitating illegal sale of medicines. It is alleged that Mehta acted as a middleman handling financial transactions including clearance, storage and UPI payments of medicines in exchange for commission.

These medicines were found in stock

The recovered stocks included large quantities of expensive antibiotics and critical care medicines, such as cefixime, amoxicillin with clavulanate, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, meropenem, erythropoietin injection and rabies anti-serum, as well as other essential medicines.

Search continues for other associates involved in the racket

Police said efforts are on to identify other associates involved in the racket, trace financial transactions and uncover the entire modus operandi of the network. Officials said this action highlights the commitment of Delhi Police to prevent misuse of public resources and ensure that essential medicines reach the intended beneficiaries.