Officials of the West Bengal Directorate of Drug Control (WBDDC) along with police seized spurious drugs worth around Rs 17 lakh from a godown, storing medicines in the Amta police station area of Howrah district on Friday.

Acting on tip-off, the WBDDC officials raided the godown owned by Babbu Manna and found huge quantities of fake medicines lying stored there.

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Mr Manna has been arrested on the spot. The storage has also been sealed.

Sources in the state directorate of the drug control said that he used to bring the fake medicines from Patna regularly and supply them to chemists’ shops.

The officials probing the case felt that there might be an inter-state racket of fake drugs in Bihar and West Bengal.

“We are expecting to get more details about the racket after interrogating the owner of the storage house. We will also track the Patna-based agency that supplies him the spurious drugs,” one of the investing WBDDC officials said requesting anonymity.

Hardly, three months ago one woman was arrested in Kolkata on charge of supplying fake drugs in open markets. Fake drugs worth Rs 6 crore were seized from her godown. These drugs were manufactured in foreign countries like the US, Turkey and Bangladesh.

Earlier in 2023, in another case, fake drugs for treatment of common diseases like hypertension, diabetes, acidity and gas were also seized from central Kolkata. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) under the health ministry had seized the drugs worth around Rs 2 crore after a raid in the Colootola area.