Delhi Police bust fake drug factory near Patna, nine arrested, drugs worth ₹5 crore seized

India supplies nearly 20% of the world's generic medicines and exports to over 200 countries. Yet within its own borders, a dangerous shadow industry is quietly dismantling that reputation.

Delhi Police's dismantling of a clandestine pharmaceutical unit near Patna is the third such bust in Bihar within days . The investigation began with an NDPS Act FIR at the Crime Branch, New Delhi. The first accused, Tanishq Jha, sourced raw materials and managed distribution for the syndicate. His interrogation led to Arun, who coordinated illegal opioid manufacture, whose disclosures then led investigators to Brijesh, running the third factory near Patna - each link followed backwards until the operation's full architecture was exposed.

Seized across the network were over 1.19 lakh spurious zinc tablets, 42,000 fake azithromycin tablets, 27 kg of paracetamol powder, 13 kg of tramadol powder valued at over ₹5 crore , and 500 grams of alprazolam. Investigators found the tablets were being pushed as painkillers and simultaneously used as substitutes for heroin . Nine persons have been arrested.

This pattern is not new. In 2022-23, nearly 70 children died in Gambia and 18 in Uzbekistan after consuming contaminated syrups made by Indian firms, triggering WHO alerts. In 2024, Maharashtra hospitals received pills made of starch and talcum powder falsely labelled as antibiotics. CDSCO flagged 112 substandard drug samples in a single monthly alert in 2025.

The root cause is structural. India's dual regulatory framework between CDSCO and state drug controllers operates with chronic inspector shortages, no binding national drug recall law, and weak inter-agency coordination.