Pune’s pharma sector has been rocked by a hi-tech fraud operation that cheated a local distributor of ₹4.4 crore, leaving chinks in the city’s wholesale medicine business.
Pune|14 June,2025: Two persons, posing as a high-value international business proposition, allegedly abused trust and credit mechanisms to divert huge volumes of medical supplies, leaving the distributors stunned by heavy financial losses. The fraud, which happened between March and May 2025, has triggered a police probe and sounded the alarm on counterfeit activities in the industry.
The victim, a 46-year-old distributor from Mukundnagar, owns New Amar Pharmaceuticals, a established enterprise selling medicines at wholesale prices to medical shops and hospitals in the Pune city. In 2020, he initiated a professional contact with a 42-year-old Mohammadwadi woman who had a medical store called Om Sainath Medical. Through four years, their regular transactions provided a trust foundation, enabling the distributor to deliver medicines on credit. In November 2024, the woman got him acquainted with a 41-year-old man from Maharshinagar, who operated Srushti Healthcare, a wholesale medical store in Guruwar Peth. The man said he had contacts with a company in Dubai that needed large shipments of medicines, promising heavy profits.
On this assurance and the woman’s validation of her partner’s trustworthiness, the distributor provided medicines for ₹4,40,35,905 on a one-month credit period from March 13 to May 8, 2025. The payment was done in the name of Om Sainath Medicals, supported by 60 cheques drawn as payment guarantees. When, however, the payment date was near, the duo started dodging commitments. They asserted they lacked sufficient funds when pushed to cash the cheques and later became uncooperative, ceasing all communication. The distributor’s investigation uncovered a larger history of fraud: the woman had supposedly cheated another distributor, Modern Distributors, out of ₹83,38,000 on the same principles.
A further probe revealed that the woman and her partner operated in concert, with the drugs provided by the victim channeled into Srushti Healthcare. The duo had allegedly purchased huge stocks of drugs from various distributors in Pune without making payments in many instances. The magnitude of fraud has caused a shockwave in the local pharmaceutical industry, emphasizing the dangers of credit transaction-based deals in the lack of strict scrutiny.
The distributor, with no avenue left, approached Vishrambaug Police Station and lodged a complaint against the two accused, resulting in the registration of a case against them. Police Inspector Arun Ghodke is investigating the case, which is meant to unveil the extent of the scam and punish the culprits. The episode has invited demands for stricter regulations and greater due diligence in Pune’s pharma trade to avoid such massive frauds decaying the industry’s credibility.
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/newsdotz/
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/@NewsDotz
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573903448264
Twitter – https://x.com/NewsDotz