Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday, attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government after India’s apex drugs regulatory body found that samples of around 50 drugs were of “substandard” quality, and asked what action has been taken.

The Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation has reportedly found that samples of around 50 drugs, including that of widely-used paracetamol, pantoprazole and some antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, were of substandard quality.

In a post on X, Yadav said, “Today’s corrupt BJP government should answer, will taking such medicine cure or make you sick?”

“As long as BJP keeps collecting donations from companies, the business of low-quality medicines will continue. Will any action be taken even after this report or will the matter be hushed up by increasing the rate of donations. This BJP game of playing with the lives of the public is not good. Condemnable!” the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said.

On 24 September, Nagpur rural police claimed to have busted an interstate racket involving distribution of counterfeit medicines and arrested three people in this connection.

The racket operated across Maharashtra and neighbouring states Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Haryana, they said.

The accused supplied counterfeit versions of widely prescribed medical drugs such as Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Amoxicillin, Cefixime and Azithromycin under brand names of non-existent firms like ‘Lab Evertouch Bio Remedies’ and ‘M/s Ginx Pharmakon LLP’, police said.