A factory in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar allegedly producing spurious life-saving medicines, the counterfeit drugs being stored at a fourth-floor room in East Delhi’s Shahdara, fake GST invoices worth Rs 50 crore to lend legitimacy to the syndicate: this is how a racket supplying spurious life-saving medicines — with fake packaging carrying labels of big pharma firms — was operating out of the national capital, the Delhi Police said Sunday.Six people have been arrested in the case, including Nikhil Arora (47), who ran a pharmacy in Bhagirath Palace in Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk. “A total of 1,20,535 counterfeit tablets were recovered, including widely-used medicines such as Rabemac-DSR, Telma-AM, Sporlac-DS, Signoflam, Chymoral Forte, Ursocol-300, CCM, Ketorol-DT, Gemcal, Gluconorm series, Jalra-50, Moxovas, and Montair-LC, among others. Fake GST invoices worth Rs 50 crore, were recovered,” DCP Aditya Gautam said.The unravelling began on March 11 when officers at the Cyber Crime Branch in Old Delhi’s Daryaganj received a call — a long-awaited tip-off was received. Counterfeit drugs — used for diabetes, as painkillers, or supplements — were allegedly exchanging hands at Baba Shyam Medicos, an expansive wholesale pharmacy in Bhagirath Palace.Multiple raids were conducted at the shop in the past, mostly by the drug inspectors. But none came to fruition, said officers. “The owner, Nikhil Arora, never stored supplies at the shop.The fake medicines only came to the store when a quick sale was ensured. Some of his buyers, who later found the drugs to be substandard or fake, informed the Drug department. But nothing was recovered,” a police officer said.On March 11, the police reached Arora’s house in Bihari Colony in Shahdara. He owned the four-storey building where he lived, and this building was connected to the adjacent structure at the roof. “The top floor of the adjacent four-storey building was also owned by Arora… This is where he stored all the medicines,” said an officer.Arora was arrested the same day by a team led by Inspector Manjeet. Following his arrest, the police traced his main supplier, Mohit Kumar Sharma, in Roorkee in Uttarakhand. “Four others — Shivam, Mayank, Sharukh and Rahul — involved in the GST fraud were arrested later. Shivam and Mayank, after hearing about Arora’s arrest, buried 40,000 fake tablets in a village in UP. These were then dug out,” the officer said.How it startedArora, 47, had opened a pharmacy in 2011 after allegedly spending years as a ‘middleman’ in the drug supply market, according to investigators. He had gauged the network of fake medicines, and started selling them on a wholesale basis.Story continues below this adOne of Arora’s main suppliers was Sharma, who sent supplies from Roorkee from a manufacturer, said officers. A police officer said that due to some complaints, Sharma’s supplies dried up, and he then took up a job of a mechanic, fixing industrial equipment used in drug manufacturing units.During one such call for the need of a mechanic, the date and time of which are still being probed, Sharma was summoned by Mohd Siddiqui, who ran a drug manufacturing plant in Muzaffarnagar. Spread over a 1000 sq. yards, Sharma saw that the unit was producing counterfeit medicines of renowned brands. “Siddiqui asked him to become a supplier,” a police officer said.Meanwhile, in Delhi, sometime in 2018, Arora met a man named Mayank. GST was introduced in 2017, and Mayank saw an opportunity. “Mayank had already been booked in a case by NCB in 2013. Now, he started buying and selling documents of fake firms with GST numbers. He and Shivam would buy these from Shahrukh and Rahul, who created them,” a police officer said. Police claim that Arora was making an annual turnover of Rs 3.5crore-Rs 5 crore from his shop. Officers are now searching for Siddqui, who they claim could unearth another supply line. “A raid was conducted at his factory where 10,000 empty bottles, carrying the label of pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline were found, along with raw material to produce calcium supplements,” DCP Gautam said.