Fake pharmacy registration racket: Former registrar faced inquiry over his degree, shows probe

ACB chief Madhur Verma had earlier said several pharmacists, registered under fake documents, were found to be operating in the Capital: “The scam was orchestrated by Singh, 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 laid-down procedures.”

“Applicants were registered online by uploading fake certificates related to diploma and training. These fake certificates were verified via email by college employees, who falsely confirmed the authenticity of the certificates,” he added.

How it started — and unravelled

According to officers privy to the matter, Singh was appointed as DPC Registrar on March 17, 2020. In May of the same year, he created an e-mail ID which he would later use to allegedly process ‘fake’ certificates for pharmacists.

In 2022, officers said, an inquiry was initiated against him after it came to light that his BPharm degree from Solan could be fake; however, despite this, he was never removed from the post.

“Singh was suspended in November 2023. By this time, he had authorised the registration of 4,298 pharmacist shops across Delhi,” an officer privy to the investigation said.

Then, on January 31 last year, a complaint was filed by the Deputy Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Delhi government, against Singh regarding the illegal approval of registration of three candidates as pharmacists whose documents were found to be fake on verification.

The ACB began its investigation; it started looking into documents and colleges from where the candidates claimed they had completed their BPharm and diplomas.

That’s when it found that this was no simple scam, but a wide network involving several people at various levels.

An officer explained how the scam worked: “It was all very systematic. The middleman, Sanjay (among those arrested), would go to chemist shops and look for people who worked there and were desperate to open their own shops. The bribe amount ranged from Rs 4-5 lakh. Everything — from making fake documents to printing fake degrees and getting it approved by the Registrar — was done by the middleman.”

ACB chief Verma said the middleman also coordinated between DPC officials and various diploma colleges.

“Two colleges in Punjab’s Fazilka had approved around 20 e-mails to authenticate fake degrees; a clerk at the institution was the one behind this. Apart from this, the owner of a pharmacy college in Muzaffarnagar, UP, Imlak Khan, was found to be involved; he was earlier arrested by the ED as well. Two other institutes in Mathura cropped up in the investigation. At both these institutes, clerks were managing email approvals,” the officer said.

Officers claimed of the bribe amount, Singh received anything between a lakh to a lakh and a half; people deployed at colleges who worked in connivance with the DPC received Rs 40,000 for approving one email to authenticate the fake documents; the person who printed the degrees and fake documents got around Rs 3,000-5,000; and the cyber cafe staff who helped upload documents and register the candidate on the website got around Rs 5,000. The rest was kept by the tout, said officers.

The ACB will now write to the Pharmacy Council of India informing them about the racket and the involvement of these officials and the colleges.

“It took a long time to investigate the matter,” said an officer. “It involved multiple people, places, and heaps of documents that had to be verified.”