Ghaziabad: A gang that allegedly cheated pharmaceutical firms of crores by ordering medicines and paying with fake cheques has been busted with the arrest of four men, including a former medical representative.The gang is believed to have carried out at least 54 such frauds across several cities, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurgaon, Delhi, Bhopal, Jaipur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Panipat, Moradabad, Ambala and Chandigarh. Police said the total amount involved is around Rs 2.5 crore, though investigators suspect the actual losses could be higher, as not all victims lodged complaints.The four arrested are Mukesh Taneja (47), Amit Khurana (34), Deep Singh (36) and Mukesh Akhariya, also known as Sunder (35), all residents of Haryana. Two other members of the gang, Sahil Khurana and Mukesh Mitthal, are absconding.Additional DCP (crime) Piyush Kumar Singh said the gang was led by Taneja, who had earlier worked as a medical representative and was familiar with pharmaceutical supply chains. Using online tools, the accused would first identify doctors from reputed private and district hospitals in a target city.“They searched doctors’ names on Google and then checked the numbers on Truecaller. After that, they looked up nearby medical pharmacies on platforms such as IndiaMART and contacted them, posing as the doctor,” Singh said.Seeing the doctor’s name displayed on the caller ID, pharmacy operators were taken into confidence. The gang would place large orders, typically worth between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, and ask the pharmacy staff to deliver the medicines near a major hospital or nursing home in the district. Payment was promised either in cash or by cheque.When the delivery staff arrived, gang members would intercept them outside the hospital premises, take possession of the medicines and hand over a cheque. The cheques later turned out to be fake, and the accused would disappear before the fraud was detected.Police said the gang deliberately asked for the deliveries between 3 pm and 5 pm, ensuring that the cheques could not be deposited the same day, giving them a window of at least 24 hours to flee.Recovered from the accused were 31 SIM cards, a mobile phone and medicines from various companies worth several lakh rupees. Investigators said the gang also fabricated cheque books using a computer, inserting doctors’ names, fake contact numbers and forged signatures. They allegedly obtained Aadhaar details online, altered them digitally and used the documents to procure SIM cards fraudulently.Khurana, a medical store operator, would buy these medicines at cheap rates from the gang and sell them to pharmacies at market rates. In one case in Nov 2025, the gang allegedly ordered medicines worth Rs 1.5 lakh from RK Healthcare and Surgical Pharmacy at Ansal Plaza while posing as a doctor from MMG Hospital. In another incident on Jan 1 this year, they placed an order worth Rs 1.1 lakh from Nicol Enterprise using the name of a senior doctor at a Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Multi-speciality Hospital in Sector 30. Police said further investigation is underway to trace the absconding accused and identify additional victims.
