Aurangabad: The food and drug administration (FDA) sleuths raided a godown in Waluj area of the city late on where people were removing stickers from expired hand sanitizer bottles and pasting new ones at a higher maximum retail price (MRP) and new expiry dates.
The incident has brought to fore how some people from pharma industry are trying to exploit the situation and make money by cheating gullible customers. Currently, Maharashtra has reported the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases in the country.
Following the successful raid, FDA joint commissioner informed that the staff of Eurolife Healthcare situated in MIDC Waluj industrial area of Aurangabad was caught while they were replacing existing stickers with new stickers reading 2021 as their expiry date.
Also read: Coronavirus impact: Police raid at medicine stores
Citing the preliminary probe carried out by the FDA, an official informed that the seized sanitisers were found manufactured in Gujarat and the company where the raid was carried out markets the product.
The total valuation of the seized articles has been estimated at Rs 50 lakh. The raid went on for hours, before an offence against the suspects was registered in the wee hours of Monday.
Sources said the suspects were planning to supply these sanitisers in the market amidst soaring demand.