New Delhi, 28 Apr: A gang of five persons, including two pharmacists, were arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly siphoning off medicines meant for the poor from the government-run Hedgewar Hospital, police said on Thursday.
Medicines worth Rs 60 lakh were recovered from the accused, identified as Ashwani Sharma (35), Pyare Ali (35), Hakim Singh (45), Dharmender Kumar (40) and Narender Sharma (56).
Narender is the head pharmacist at Hedgewar Hospital, while Kumar works under him, Sanjay Kumar Jain, DCP (Northeast) said. "Ashwani and Narender were the kingpins, were operating the gang for a year," Jain added.
The arrests came after police received information that someone was selling government medicines at cheap rates. A raid was subsequently conducted at Ashwani’s house. "Ashwani had a huge stockpile of medicines at his house, where he had constructed a godown to store them," Jain said.
Medicines - mostly costly antibiotics, ointments and inhalers, including Amoxycillin (500 mg), Roxythromycin (150 mg), Ampicllin (500 mg), Asthalin, Ciprorin (200 mg and 500 mg), Metrogyl (400 mg), Cephalaxin (500 mg), Norfloxacin (400 mg), Ofloren (200 mg) and Erythromycine were recovered.
Ashwani told police during questioning that he belongs to a family of pharmacists and had done a two-year course in D. Pharm from Banglore. "Being an insider, he had thorough knowledge of the workings of government hospitals. He was aware of the loopholes in the receipt and issuance of medicines at government hospitals," Jain said. He then formed a cartel with the staff at Hedgewar Hospital.
"The gang was selling these medicines at 10-20 per cent of the market value," Jain said.
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