Man gets three years in jail for selling spurious medicines

A drug court on Thursday awarded a man three years of rigorous imprisonment in a 13-year-old case pertaining to selling counterfeit medicines at his unlicensed medical store.

Muhammad Feroz was found guilty of running a medical store without a licence in the Katchi Gali medicine market and illegally selling spurious, unregistered and substandard medicines. The convict was told to pay a collective fine of Rs150,000 or undergo additional eight months of imprisonment in case of default.

A three-member drug court, presided over by their Chairman Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, announced their verdict after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides. The other two members were Muhammad Arif Mithani (pharmacist) and Aijaz Ahmed Khanzada (medical expert).

The court ruled that the prosecution evidence, coupled with documentary evidence, including laboratory reports, was sufficient to prove beyond a shadow of any reasonable doubt that on September 2, 2010, the accused was found to be running a medical store without a licence in the name of Awab Enterprises at a shop on the ground floor, and had a godown on the first floor in the Katchi Gali medicine market.

The accused in his capacity as proprietor/incharge was engaged in the “unauthorised sale of spurious, misbranded, substandard and unregistered medicines/drug products”, said the court. Feroz, who appeared in court on bail, was subsequently taken into custody and remanded to the central prison to serve out his sentence.

He was also given the benefit of Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code, meaning that the period he remained in jail after his arrest on September 3, 2010, would be deducted from his prison term.

In June 2011, the drug court had sentenced the accused to a year in jail in the present case. However, when the prosecution challenged the trial court’s verdict in the Sindh High Court (SHC) over lesser punishment, the SHC remanded the case back to the drug court with the direction to award the appropriate sentence in accordance with the law.

An FIR was lodged under different sections of the Drugs Act 1976 on behalf of the state through Drug Inspector Syed Adnan Rizvi, who said that the drug control administration of the health department and the Federal Investigation Agency in a joint raid on the accused’s shop and godown seized counterfeit and unregistered medicines, including Clomid, Voren, Panadol CF, Cofcal, Pyricam, Cetan, Napa 125 suppositories and Cipralex.

Feroz, along with his brother Muhammad Kashif, was awarded 15 days in prison and fined Rs50,000 in another similar case. On failure to pay the fine, they would have to undergo additional 10 days of imprisonment.