Orissa police have seized fake medicines worth crores of rupees after raiding a medicine manufacturing unit, which was being run in Kantabanji area of western part of Bolangir district.

 The manufacturer and another person, a doctor, have already taken into custody in connection with the case. The police suspect an inter-state racket behind the operation.

According to Bolangir police who raided the unit late on Friday night following a tip off from an unidentified source, the spurious drugs were being manufactured with chemicals obtained  from Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The raw material was also being procured from places like Meerut and Kolkata. The fake medicines which included many life saving ones were being supplied to distributors and minor retailers, mostly in rural pockets, both inside and outside the state.

Following the seizure, the state police have sealed several medicine shops in different districts, particularly in the western region, suspecting them to be marketing the fake medicines.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in many parts of western Orissa on Sunday morning, after angry locals attacked several medical shops, upon coming to know of the development.

Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC have already been clamped in some areas.