NEW DELHI: The ACB busted a fake pharmacy registration racket and arrested 47 people, including a former employee of the Delhi Pharmacy Council (DPC), an official said on Wednesday.
According to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) statement, the accused allegedly facilitated fraudulent pharmacist registrations using forged documents, allowing unqualified people to operate as pharmacists in the city.
“The scam was orchestrated by Kuldeep Singh, former registrar at DPC, in collaboration with a private firm which was hired to conduct online registrations of the pharmacists.
“However, the company was hired without any tendering process and in violation of the laid down procedures,” Joint Commissioner of Police (ACB) Madhur Verma said in a statement. “The investigation revealed that bribes were taken through a middleman named Sanjay, who coordinated between DPC officials and various diploma colleges,” Verma said.
The racket enabled applicants to upload fake certificates which were then falsely verified by complicit employees of pharmacy institutes, read the statement.
Some applicants even submitted different sets of documents for multiple registrations, all of which were approved without scrutiny.
False verification emails were sent from fabricated addresses to validate counterfeit credentials, it read.
Authorities found that Kuldeep Singh continued approving registrations via his personal email after leaving office on August 16, 2023, illegally sanctioning 232 applications before his final suspension on September 25.
The ACB has arrested 47 people and seized forged documents, with further investigations ongoing.