Nagpur: A major fake medicines racket supplying counterfeit drugs through government tenders has been busted, leading to the arrest of Robin alias Himanshu Vijaykumar Taneja by Kalmeshwar police. Following the exposure of the entire syndicate, Taneja applied for bail at the District Sessions Court. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court granted him bail under stringent conditions.
Investigations revealed that counterfeit medicines were manufactured and supplied to government hospitals via official contracts. The racket came to light when forensic analysis confirmed the drugs were fake.
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03 June 2025
Fake Companies and Forged Certificates Used
According to the prosecution, accused Vijay Shailendra Chaudhary procured counterfeit Ciprofloxacin 500 mg tablets (marketed as Recip-500) and handed them over to Mihir Shashikant Trivedi. Trivedi then passed them to Hemant Dhondiba Mule, who supplied the drugs to Nagpur’s Civil Surgeon, General Hospital, after securing the government tender.
Drug Inspector Nitin Bhandarkar collected samples and sent them for testing to the Government Analyst in Mumbai. The analyst reported that the drugs were spurious under Section 17-B of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The packaging listed the manufacturer as “M/s Refant Pharma Pvt Ltd, Gandhinagar, Gujarat”, which was later found to be a non-existent company.
The accused also presented an analysis certificate from “Evertouch Bio-Remedies, Thrissur” and a GMP certificate from the Kerala Drug Controller. However, both were found to be fake during the investigation.
Links to Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand
Further interrogation of Vijay Chaudhary revealed that the counterfeit medicines were purchased from Robin Taneja and his brother Raman Taneja, residents of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttarakhand raided a factory named “Dwarika Natural Formulations” in Roorkee, Haridwar. The factory, owned by accused Amit Dhiman, was found to be manufacturing fake drugs using industrial equipment and raw materials. Dhiman confessed that the drugs were being produced on the demand orders of Robin Taneja.
