GHAZIABAD: Five members of a gang were arrested on Sunday for allegedly manufacturing counterfeit tablets in the name of Himalaya’s Liv-52. Police recovered 50,000 tablets, 500 wrappers, 1,200 caps and containers, and a WagonR car from their possession.According to DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari, officials from Himalaya Wellness received information that someone was selling counterfeit medicine under their product name in Aligarh. They later discovered that the counterfeit pills were being sent out from an address in Muradnagar in the city through a courier. A police complaint was subsequently registered at the Muradnagar police station and cops conducted a raid.The police team arrested Mayank Aggarwal (41), Tushar Thakur (25), Akash Thakur (28), and Nitin Tyagi (44), all residents of Ghaziabad, along with Anoop Garg (40), a resident of Delhi. Tushar Thakur is a paramedical student, while Mayank Aggarwal was the mastermind behind the operation, cops said.An FIR has been registered against the accused under BNS sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 336(3) (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 274 (adulteration of food), and 276 (adulteration of drugs), and relevant sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Copyright Act at Muradnagar police station.Teams have been formed to nab other absconding accused whose names were revealed following the arrest, police said.The accused had been running this operation for the last four months, and had supplied the counterfeit medicines in several districts, including Aligarh, Mathura, Bijnor, Agra, Meerut and Shamli. The accused told cops that preparing one box of the counterfeit medicine cost them between Rs 35 and Rs 40. These boxes were then supplied to the market for around Rs 110-115.”In comparison, the genuine product carries an MRP of over Rs 200 per box. This price gap made it easier for the accused to push the fake products into shops, offering retailers a higher margin while undercutting the original brand,” a police officer said.The firm, owned by Mukesh Kumar, operated under the name NP Trading.”Bills for the medicine were made in the name of NP Trading company and sent outside. Teams were formed to nab the absconding accused in the matter,” the DCP added.
