THE AHMEDABAD rural police busted a racket spanning Maharashtra and Gujarat involving a gang allegedly led by a former pharmaceutical company executive that replaced genuine blood plasma with spurious versions and sold it to blood banks for 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 in the market, and arrested four persons earlier this week.
Senior police officers told The Indian Express on Thursday that this could be just the “tip of the iceberg” given that plasma products are critical for treating certain serious conditions and terminal illnesses, and this is the “first case of its kind”.
The investigations could now lead to Maharashtra where the spurious plasma was being sold, police sources said.
The Indian Express has learnt that 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, which led to suspicion.
The first leads, however, came to assistant sub-inspector Mukeshsinh Dolatsinh and Armed Police constable Merubha Ghanshyamsinh attached to the SOG. They placed a former pharma executive, Dinesh Chaudhary, who was operating in the Changodar area, under surveillance around the end of May after suspecting him of “getting information on plasma orders by a particular firm and replacing bags of genuine blood plasma 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 its plasma products meant to cure hemophilia and other immunodeficiencies, which he planned to target.
He rented a house in Changodar where he allegedly prepared “spurious versions” of plasma by mixing it with saline and then replaced them in the vehicles contracted by the firm to transport the plasma and sold it to two blood banks in Maharashtra’s Washim district for half the rate.
The market price of each unit of the blood plasma, measuring around 350 ml, is around 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 told The Indian Express. 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 Dinesh 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 who has also been arrested is from Dholka in Ahmedabad district, where the fourth accused, Rafik Salembhai, also hails from.
There were five blood banks in Maharashtra — in Ahmednagar, Nashik, Dhule, Bhusawal and Aurangabad districts — and at least a third of the sourced samples were found to be spurious.
An FIR was registered at Changodar police station on the basis of a complaint filed by an official of the pharmaceutical company and the accused were booked under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections 316(3) (criminal breach of trust) , 125 (Act of endangering life or personal safety), 276 (adulteration of drugs), 324 (5) (mischief), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy). Chaudhary is under police remand till Saturday while the other accused are in judicial custody.
Minister of State for Health Praful Pansheriya said the case is being investigated by the state and central health teams. “The police are investigating the case. Although no connection has been established with any blood bank in Gujarat, they were dealing with Maharashtra and other states where they would sell the fake plasma to other companies and also make two packets out of one by adding water. No permission or licence was sought from us or issued to run the blood bank,” Praful Pansheriya told The Indian Express on Thursday.
Saying that this is probably the first such case in Gujarat and in the country as well, Pansheriya added, “We had not even imagined that someone can adulterate blood and plasma. The FSL report has confirmed the adulteration.”
Dinesh Chaudhary, Jitendra Solanki, Mohan Gaikwad & Rafiq Salembhai. 
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