Drug Court dismisses bail applications in unregistered, spurious medicine cases

The Drug Court has recently dismissed the bail applications of a pharmacy owner and store manager in a case pertaining to sale of unregistered and spurious drugs of different international brands.

The applicants, Suleman Moorad and Mohammad Farooq, were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during a raid on a medicine store situated in KDA Scheme I. The FIA said it found a huge quantity of unregistered and spurious drugs of international brands during the raid.

According to the prosecution, the FIA seized in all 94 different brands of medicines while the quantity of the seized drugs was very large and it seemed that the stock was for distribution across the market.

A counsel for the applicants submitted that no show cause notice was issued to the applicants for alleged violation of the Section 23 of the Drugs Act. The counsel submitted that the entire case was based on mala fide intentions as no sale invoice had been recovered by the FIA and no exit time of occurrence of the raid was mentioned in the FIR.

He submitted that the applicants had not committed any crime and the FIR did not show the names of independent witnesses. The counsel submitted that the allegation of having spurious medicines was mentioned in the FIR but the laboratory reports were not available to verify it.

The counsel requested the court to grant bail to the applicants. The Drug Court after hearing the arguments of the counsel observed that no case of bail was made out at this stage of the case and dismissed the bail application.

Another case

The court also dismissed the bail applications of a pharmacy owner and his sales man in a case pertaining to sale of unregistered, expired and spurious drugs of different international brands.

Muhammad Irfan and Imran Ahmed were booked by the FIA for selling and storing huge quantity of unregistered, unwarranted, expired and allegedly spurious drugs of different international brands in their store situated in Clifton Block 9.

According to the prosecution, the FIA seized in all 44 medicines and their quantity was huge, which prima facie showed they were for distribution across the market. The prosecution alleged that few medicines were expired and all these medicines were said to be unregistered. After hearing the arguments of the counsel, the court observed that no case of bail was made out on this stage and dismissed their bail applications, recalling the interim bail of Irfan.