Gujarat Police have busted a sprawling multistate racket to manufacture and sell fake hypertension medication, swooping on counterfeit stocks of a popular drug at stores in Kheda and Kutch, and arresting three men, including two from Uttar Pradesh.Several batches of fake Nicardia Retard 10, a widely prescribed medicine for the management of high blood pressure, were seized from Kishan Medical Store in Nadiad, Kheda, and Navkar Medical Agency and Mahadev Medical Agency in Bhuj, Kutch.India has among the world’s highest numbers of hypertensive individuals. Data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) conducted in 2019–20 showed 21.3% of females and 24% of males aged 15 years and above had elevated blood pressure – essentially meaning that every fifth Indian suffers from high BP.High BP can cause severe, life-threatening damage to the heart, brain, and kidneys. The active component in Nicardia Retard is nifedipine, a calcium channel blocker that relaxes the blood vessels to reduce the pressure on them, thereby improving blood flow in the body.The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad City Police on Thursday (August 27) that they had acted after J B Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a well known pharma company headquartered in Mumbai, complained to the Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) on August 19 that fakes of its product, Nicadia Retard 10, with Batch No. ACG25007, were circulating in Gujarat.A police complaint was also filed, and the two departments opened an investigation into J B Pharma’s complaint.The FDCA found the fake drug being sold at several medical stores across the state. Investigations suggested the fake medication had been supplied by one Parshva Medical Agency in the Paldi area of Ahmedabad, police said.Story continues below this adThe Ahmedabad agency, in turn, was found to have procured its supplies from one Sena Medical Agency in Lucknow.The investigation also revealed that the stocks recovered from Kutch had been supplied through one AVR Medicose in Jaipur, closing the loop on at least three states, police said.“The accused persons allegedly operated as an organised network for the procurement, manufacture, and distribution of counterfeit medicines,” the Crime Branch said in a statement.According to police, the counterfeit tablets were manufactured and packaged to closely resemble J B Pharma’s genuine product. The fakes carried the same name, labelling and batch details, which made it difficult for patients and buyers to identify them as fake, the police said.Story continues below this adAccording to the police statement, the accused acted for “financial gain”. “Such counterfeit medicines have the potential to cause serious harm to patients and may even result in death, particularly when supplied as genuine prescription medicines for the treatment of blood pressure-related conditions,” the DCB said.After an FIR was registered at the DCB police station on a complaint filed by a senior government drugs inspector, police arrested three individuals around 9.45 pm on Wednesday (August 26).One of the three men was identified as Darshil Girish Thakarshi Sanghvi, a 39-year-old resident of Ahmedabad, who had allegedly procured stocks of the fake medicine and supplied it to sub-distributors in Ahmedabad and other cities.The other two men were identified as Devendra, also 39 years old, and Umang Abhay Purshottamdas Rastogi (34), both of whom originally belong to Lucknow.Story continues below this adAccording to police, Devendra and Rastogi allegedly procured the counterfeit medicines at heavily discounted prices in UP and supplied them to Gujarat. Their alleged operation appears to have been spread across states – both men had been arrested earlier in another counterfeit medicine case in June 2026 by the Vishrambagh police in Pune, Maharashtra.Before that, Rastogi was arrested in September 2022 in a case under the GST Act, police said.As police widen and deepen the probe, more arrests, possibly of manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors, are imminent, police officers said.