The next time you buy medicines for your family member from drug counter at SHMS hospital, be careful. On Tuesday, police arrested two ‘pharmacists’ for selling expired medicine for allegedly wiping out the original expiry date on the medicine meant for poor patients.
The Pharmacists have been identified as Mohammad Ashraf Dar and Reyaz Ahmad Wani. The two were arrested by the police following a complaint that patients are being provided expired medicine, Following the complaint, a police team arrived at the hospital and seized the drugs, they said. They said that the medicines as per the label were not expired and the manufacture date too showed the latest drugs but the bar code clearly proved that the medicines were expired and the original expiry date replaced. “In this connection, two employees have been so far arrested and more arrests are expected soon,” they said. Confirming the incident, SSP Srinagar Imtiaz Ismail Parray told that a case under FIR No. 23/2018 u/s 420 (cheating) has been registered and further investigations were taken up.
He said that the samples will be sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for tests and also to drug controller. Meanwhile, sources said that there was a deep nexus between some unscrupulous dealers and officials at SMHS, thus playing with the lives of the people. Sources said police will encompass investigation into the role of some pharmaceutical companies in this respect since it is also their responsibility to recall the expired medicines.