Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, May 10: About 90 percent of the spurious drugs supplied by Government Hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir division have been consumed by people suffering from different medical ailments across the State.
This startling fact came to fore in the status report filed by IG Crime, S J M Gillani before the Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magray in Srinagar yesterday. “About 2,65,000 drugs were issued by various Government Hospitals to patients across the State and out of this quantity 2,30,084 have been consumed, while as only nearly 34,000 tablets were lying unused”, says the status report.
“Maximum number of spurious drugs had been issued by Director Health Services, Kashmir; who have reported that out of 2,00,000 tablets issued by them, nearly 1,70,000 have already been consumed and only 31,000 were lying unused”, says the report adding, “out of 50,000 tablets issued by SMGS Hospital, Jammu, 49,674 had been consumed and only 326 tablets were lying unused.”
Government Hospital, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu had supplied 10,000 tablets and 8700 had been consumed by different patients. Lal Ded Hospital, Srinagar had issued 5000 tablets and nearly 3000 of them had been consumed.
The official report says, “the spurious drugs supplied to the Health Department by the bidder firm had been found mostly utilized through Government Hospitals and unused drug were seized immediately and they were lying with different departments. “Out of the seized unused drug, 23,700 tablets are lying in the custody of Crime Branch, Jammu and remaining 11,216 are in custody of the Drug Control Organisation Jammu/ Srinagar”.
Virtually indicting the Purchase Committee and the Verification Boards of the Health Department for the spurious drug scam, the report says, “the firm M/s Lifeline Pharmaco Surgical had supplied spurious drugs in connivance with the officials of the Purchase Committee constituted by the Government, who without verifying the tender documents and credentials of the supplier approved the rate contract by abusing their official position thereby causing wrongful gain to the exchequer”.
The Committee comprised Dr Madhu Khullar, Director Health Services, Jammu (Chairperson); Dr Aniece Chowdhary, the then HoD (ENT) GMC, Jammu (Vice-Chairman), Mrs Reva Gupta, Administrator Associated Hospitals, Jammu (Member); Dr A K Sharma, Medical Superintendent (Retd.) SMGS Hospital, Jammu (Member Secretary); Dr. S C Khajuria, Assistant Director, Family Welfare, Jammu(Member) and Yogesh Sharma, Accounts Officer, Medical College, Jammu.
The report says, “despite annexing the photocopies of the requisite documents, the Purchase Committee accepted the same and approved the rate contract of the drug Maximizin-625 mg in favour of the bidder firm vide approval No. GMC/J/PC-II/R C/EDL/12-13/1021-59 dated 16.06.2012, signed by Member Secretary”.
“Minutes of the meeting of 15 and 16 June, 2012 have been found unsigned by the Vice-Chairman of the Committee. However, his signatures on the Meeting Register and Comparative statement have been found appended. Two important members of the Purchase Committee, representatives of Drug Control Organisation and Industries Department have not attended the meeting at all”, says the report adding, “the rate contract has been issued by the Member Secretary of the Purchase Committee on 16.06.2012 and the supplies of the drug have been found made by the supplier from November 9, 2012 to November 24, 2012”.
Charging Verification Board for colluding with the other officials, the report of Crime Branch says, “the Verification Board constituted by the Directorate of Health Services consisting of one Chairman and four members, where the bulk of supplies had gone, have passed the drug without verification and have marked the clearance and certified in violation”, adding, “the certificate stated that items as per the bill have been received on November 26, 2012 in full strictly in accordance with purchase order, approved sample/specification entered in the concerned register at page No. 98/D after verification by the Board. Analytical report in order”.
“Though the bidder firm did not fulfill all the requisite formalities as specified in the tender notice, the Purchase Committee-II without finalizing the formalities and confirming the authenticity of the documents submitted by M/s Lifeline Pharmaco Surgicals as also without approving the samples, approved the rate of the firm in respect of the supply of one product i.e. Maximizin-625 mg tablets out of 33 product for which the firm had quoted”, the document says.
The supplier firm had produced documents including authorization certificate with the tender documents, as well as Analytical report with the supplies. The form had quoted the supply of Medley manufacture products, but instead had supplied drugs prepared through one Sanative Pharmaceuticals located at Dehradun (Uttrakhand).
“Sanative Pharmaceuticals, Uttrakhand was also sealed by the Uttrakhand authorities on January 3, 2013 on the basis of complaint of Drug Controller, Jaipur, Rajasthan as the firm had been found involved in supply of spurious drugs to Rajasthan Government, whereupon a case FIR No. 01/2013 u/s 18,27,36 Drugs and Cosmetic Act – 1940 r/w Section 274, 275, 276 IPC has been registered at P/S Suhaspur, Vikas Nagar, Dehradun on January 3, 2013 against the said firm”.
“Further, the tendering firm had offered to supply Maximizin-625 mg tablets to the department in a strip of 1*10 tablets manufactured by Medley Pharmaceuticals, Andheri East, Mumbai but the supplier company had supplied the medicines manufactured by AFFY Parentrals Gorrewalla, P.O. Baddi District Solan (HP) and marketed by M/s Medley Pharmaceuticals. This variation of the supplier was overlooked not only by the verification board of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Srinagar but also Purchasing officers of the Drug Supplied units and their verification Boards”, the report says.
The original Analytical report of AFFY Parentrals sent by the accused along with the supplies of drug shows that 2, 50,000 Maximizin-625 mg tablets had been manufactured through Batch No. BPT -1583 whereas, 2, 65,000 Maximizin-625mg tablets of the same batch were found supplied by the supplier company to the Health Department.
During the course of inquiry, the Crime Branch discovered, “M/s Medley Pharmaceuticals Ltd. had not issued any authorization to M/s Lifeline Pharmaco Surgical and that the latter had entered into the tendering process/supply of drugs by producing fake and fabricated authorization certificates, reports of the original manufacturer without any legal authorization”.
Further, the documents seized from accused Ashok Kumar Raina by the Crime Branch also revealed that the address of firm M/s Lifeline Pharmaco Surgicals was also fake, as firm was being operated by accused person from H. No. 131/4 whereas H.No. 130/4 was reflected by him in all the documents and correspondence. As per the documents seized, the accused had tried to establish two more firms with name M/S Modestra Health Care and M/s Ostra Monetenovo Health Care, for which accused had executed fraudulent rent deeds with Sanjiv Kumar co-owner of H.No. 131/4, but the firms had not been got registered by the accused.
Various investigating agencies involved in investigation of spurious drug scam had filed their status report in High Court yesterday. The Crime Branch, Department of Health and Medical Education, Drug Controller Jammu and Kashmir and Drug Controller General of India had submitted their details.
Meanwhile, M/s Affy Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd through its counsels K S Johal and Inderjeet Gupta has filed a CMP No.934 of 2013 before the Division Bench for intervention in the matter and modification of order dated May 1, 2013.
The counsel on behalf of the petitioner has stated that M/s Affy Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd has no privity of contract with M/s Lifeline Pharmaco Surgicals and M/s Senative Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd neither are they the supplier of Maximizin nor have they manufactured the said brand in a strip of 10 tablets. “There is no semblance of evidence whatsoever on the basis of which the applicant can be connected with the commission of offence”, says their petition.
“M/s Affy Pharmaceuticals had never signed any contract or supplied any pharmaceutical products against any Government tender in the Jammu and Kashmir. The applicant is the manufacturer of brand in packaging of six tablets in a strip whereas the drug in question was of a totally different packing of 10 tablets in a strip”, they submitted.
The Division Bench issued notice to the respondents in the CMP. They also allowed the application of Kashmir Bar Association seeking intervention in the scam.
The Court directions came in response to a PIL filed by Dr Nisarul Hassan and Shafat Rasool seeking directions from High Court to constitute a Committee of experts to look into the scam.
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