Lucknow’s fake medicines crackdown has led the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) to cancel the drug licences of 14 establishments and suspend the licences of 29 others in Aminabad’s medicine market, after investigators identified alleged counterfeit medicine trading and cross-billing practices.
An FSDA official said the establishments facing cancellation had been found involved in cross-billing and the trade in fake medicines. Licences of other firms were suspended after deficiencies were detected in their operations. The action followed an FSDA investigation conducted in August into the movement and recording of medicines in the city’s wholesale and retail supply network.
According to the official, some firms were recording purchases and sales on paper while circulating fake and counterfeit medicines in the market. The findings led to nine first information reports being registered at Aminabad police station on August 12 against the firms under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The enforcement action has extended beyond Aminabad. In July, FSDA teams seized fake medicines from illegal warehouses in Alambagh, Bakshi Ka Talab and Aminabad. The department said illegal medicines worth approximately Rs 41.58 lakh had been seized across Lucknow so far.
The investigation also identified an alleged fake-billing and software-tampering operation. An FIR was registered against eight firms in Aminabad and a software vendor in connection with the case. The department separately detected a cross-billing syndicate operating in Kaiserbagh without the physical supply of medicines.
The alleged practices point to weaknesses in the record-keeping and physical verification systems that connect medicine firms, warehouses and markets. In the cases described by the FSDA, transactions were recorded on paper or processed through allegedly tampered software even when medicines were not physically supplied. The department’s action has therefore targeted both the establishments selling or circulating the medicines and the systems used to document transactions.
Nine FIRs have been registered against 32 people in connection with the cases, while two arrests have been made, according to the report. The police cases and licence action are proceeding alongside the seizure of suspected illegal medicines and the investigation into the firms and software vendor named in the complaints.
The simultaneous action against multiple establishments has caused concern among traders in Aminabad’s medicine market. An FSDA official said the campaign against the network involved in fake medicines and fake billing would continue. Further enforcement will determine whether additional firms, warehouses or individuals are brought into the investigation.
