Ex-pharma executive led plasma adulteration racket, Gujarat police say

The Ahmedabad rural police have busted a racket involving the replacement of genuine blood plasma with spurious versions, allegedly led by a former pharmaceutical company executive. The gang operated across Maharashtra and Gujarat, selling the adulterated plasma to blood banks at half the market rate.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Ahmedabad Rural police seized 1,140 units of adulterated blood plasma, valued at nearly Rs 11 lakh, and arrested four persons earlier this week. Senior police officers said on Thursday that this could be just the tip of the iceberg, as plasma products are critical for treating certain serious conditions and terminal illnesses. They described it as the first case of its kind.

The investigations may now extend to Maharashtra, where the spurious plasma was being sold, police sources said. Of the total 1,670 units of plasma sourced from five blood banks in Maharashtra by an Ahmedabad-based multinational pharmaceutical company, 562 were found to be spurious.

The first leads came from assistant sub-inspector Mukeshsinh Dolatsinh and constable Merubha Ghanshyamsinh of the SOG. They placed former pharma executive Dinesh Chaudhary under surveillance around the end of May after suspecting him of obtaining information on plasma orders and replacing genuine bags with spurious ones.

Chaudhary, a resident of Banaskantha, earlier worked as a blood plasma collection executive in multiple companies, including the multinational firm known for plasma products used to treat hemophilia and other immunodeficiencies. He rented a house in Changodar where he allegedly prepared spurious versions of plasma by mixing it with saline, then replaced the genuine plasma in vehicles contracted by the firm and sold it to two blood banks in Maharashtra's Washim district for half the rate. The market price of each unit of blood plasma, measuring around 350 ml, is about Rs 5,000.

According to Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad Rural, Om Prakash Jat, “Chaudhary did not follow any protocol for storage of blood plasma. Instead he stored these in ice boxes or a deep freeze unit, rendering the genuine blood plasma exposed and expired.” His alleged point person in Washim was Mohan Gaikwad, who belongs to Maharashtra's Malegaon tehsil and took the fake consignments to sell them to the blood banks. He is among those arrested.

“We were shocked to learn what was going on and have alerted the Gujarat State Blood Transfusion Council that has begun monitoring at least 700 blood banks in Gujarat,” SP Jat said. The SOG also flagged the cases to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

The SOG began its primary investigation in early April, suspecting that a vehicle belonging to one of the accused, Jitendra Solanki, was used to transport three consignments meant for the pharma company's plasma fractionation centre, allegedly at Chaudhary's behest. “This company, which follows strict global protocols, rejected these plasma samples sourced from blood banks in Maharashtra and that raised suspicion,” says Jat. Solanki, from Dholka in Ahmedabad district, has also been arrested, along with the fourth accused, Rafik Salembhai, also from Dholka.

Five blood banks in Maharashtra — in Ahmednagar, Nashik, Dhule, Bhusawal and Aurangabad districts — were involved, and at least a third of the sourced samples were found to be spurious. An FIR was registered at Changodar police station based on a complaint by an official of the pharmaceutical company. The accused were booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita including criminal breach of trust, act endangering life or personal safety, adulteration of drugs, and criminal conspiracy.