Two held for selling defence officer's cancer medicines

Two people were arrested for allegedly selling expensive cancer medicines meant for defence personnel to patients at cheap rates online, police said on Monday.

The accused have been identified as Dhruv Nath Jha and Om Nath Jha - both brothers, they said. The total cost of medicines recovered from the duo is around Rs 30 lakhs, police said.

On September 20, police received information about a gang involved in selling costly cancer medicines meant for sale at defence and ESI dispensaries in the open market.

The police said a trap was laid near a petrol pump in Vikas marg. Dhruv Nath Jha, who came on a scooter with a bagful of medicines, was nabbed, they said.

"Five packets of costly medicines with stamps that read - sale in Defence and ESI only - were recovered from the bag. The police also recovered seven other medicine packets from which similar stamps had been erased," Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Jasmeet Singh said.

A case has been registered at the Preet Vihar police station against Dhruv, a resident of Krishi farm in JJ Bela Estate.

Based on information disclosed by Dhruv, his brother Om Nath Jha was also arrested from his office in Laxmi Nagar, the officer added.

Large quantities of medicines and the chemical used for erasing the stamps was also recovered from his office, the officer added.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they received these medicines at cheap rates from a gangs operating from Gwalior, Mumbai, Ghaziabad and Noida, the DCP said.

The accused used to further supply the medicines to the patients on cheap rates online, the police said.