Cases filed against e-com firm after FDA detects illegal sale of abortion kits

Police have registered 13 FIRs against an ecommerce portal for selling medical termination of pregnancy MTP kits and abortion medicines allegedly without prescription in parts of Maharashtra an official of the state Food and Drug Administration FDA said here on SaturdayThe cases were registered at various police stations in Mumbai Thane Jalgaon Kolhapur Aurangabad and Nagpur based on the complaint lodged by the FDA officials he saidFDA Assistant Commissioner Ganesh Rokade said the administration had received information that abortion drugs were being sold illegally on Meeshocom an online portalFor the purpose of verification orders were placed for MTP kits without prescription in various parts of the state by the FDA personnel who acted as decoy customers he said in a releaseThe portal sells cosmetic products jewellery apparels and some other items In its beauty and health section products related to makeup wellness and skincare are available No section on drugs is visible on its homepage But when the word MTP is typed in the search window options like MTP abortion kit MTP kit tablets MTP pills become visible After selecting one of these options the page displays images of abortion kits of some pharma companies the release saidWhen orders were placed by the FDA personnel online they were accepted without the doctorsrsquo prescription As ordered a total of 16 MTP kits were received through courier parcel in parts of the state These kits were manufactured by a leading pharma company and were distributed from Varanasi Agra and DelhiAn MTP kit is a lsquoSchedule Hrsquo drug under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and it is mandatory to sell it only on the prescription of a registered medical practitioner Also according to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 2002 and Rules 2003 it is mandatory to use this medicine at a health facility and under the supervision of a service provider as its use may endanger the health and life of the patientBy selling these medical products without prescription Meeshocom has not ensured compliance of the laws that are in force for the sale of drugs The drugs like MTP Kit which are not to be sold without doctorsrsquo prescription the FDA saidldquoA total of 13 FIRs have been registered against Meeshocom at the police stations in Mumbai Thane Jalgaon Kolhapur Aurangabad and Nagpur based on the complaints lodged by the FDA drugs inspectors under relevant sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Indian Penal Code IPC between April 22 and May 6 Further investigation is onrdquo the FDA official saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever