July 28, 2021
FDA conducts raid; 1 held for manufacturing, selling product selling product under real and fake brand names.
One product that made its way into most homes across the world in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic has been hand sanitisers. Unfortunately, this popularity has also given rise to black marketing. In this vein, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found that fake hand sanitisers that may not conform to quality standards have flooded Pune’s markets.
Sanitisers have to be made in a composition prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which involves ethyl alcohol/isopropanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerin. But chemists, wellness centres and shops in the Kharadi area were found to be selling spurious hand sanitisers under both existing and fake brand names, during a raid conducted by FDA Pune just days ago.
Acting on a tip-off and complaint, Dinesh Khivansara, assistant commissioner of FDA (drug) and his team had conducted the raid at the premises of Atma Agencies in Chandan Nagar. Agency owner Prakash Atmaram Gurnani was found to be involved in manufacturing and marketing of various sanitisers — but upon detailed investigation it was found they are manufacturing sanitisers in the name of other companies by affixing labels he printed and selling spurious products under other brand names. Allegedly, Gurnani has been selling such products for the last five months in areas like Chandan Nagar, Vadgaonsheri, Kharadi, Hadapsar, Viman Nagar, Wagholi, Yerwada and more.
Khivansara informed, “Stock of sanitisers without labels and over 1,000 sticker labels worth Rs 17,000 were seized from Chandan Nagar premises.
An FIR has been filed against the man selling these spurious products under the name of ‘Happy Hand Advanced Hand Sanitiser’, an original existing product manufactured by DDN SFA Ltd. Another name used was that of Jolly Hand Sanitiser, manufactured by Microgen Hygiene Pvt Ltd, Kala Amb (as per the name on the label). All this stock has been seized and samples sent to the lab for testing.”FDA drug inspector Shamal Mahindrakar filed a complaint at Chandan Nagar police station (PS) in this matter. Accused Gurnani has been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 276 (sale of drug as a different drug or preparation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. He has been arrested and investigations are on, said Chandan Nagar cops.
Source: https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pune/crime/fake-sanitisers-flood-city
