Maharashtra FDA Orders FIR Against Snapdeal Founder Kunal Bahl For Allegedly Selling Drugs Online

Just few days after raiding the premises of the Snapdeal at Goregaon in Mumbai for selling prescription drugs online, today the food and drug administration (FDA) department of the Maharashtra government has ordered filing of an FIR against the founder and CEO Kunal Bahl and directors of the company.

The Snapdeal premise was raided earlier this month after the FDA commissioner Harshdeep Kamble had received a complaint that prescription drugs such as Ascoril cough syrup and Vigora tablets were being sold through the website. The organisation had also seized all the documents regarding the drug sales such as agreements with vendors and delivery challans to customers.

“…upon receiving the notice, we have delisted the products and provided all information to the FDA team. We shared the details of our fulfillment center as required by the FDA team. Upon their visit to the fulfillment center, they have not found any such product. We are assisting the FDA team in this investigation,” a Snapdeal spokesperson said.

FDA Commissioner Harshadeep Kamble said at that time, “A team of FDA officers raided the premises of Snapdeal in Mumbai. A notice was issued to the company and it was asked to furnish details of the drugs offered for sale, distribution and exhibited for sale on their website Snapdeal.com.”

Kamble had then added, “We received information that various drugs, including prescription drugs, are being sold online through Snapdeal.com after which our team raided the premises of a related company.”

The action against Snapdeal was taken under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 Sec. 18 (C), read with Rule 65, which mentions that only a licensed retailer can sell drugs and that too on the basis of a doctor’s prescription. As this kind of sale of drugs is not allowed as the self medication may be harmful to patients.

The organisation had said that the FDA officials will also check the offices of other online retailers to find out whether such activities are being undertaken by them. As reported earlier, we found Amazon and Shopclues had also listed Vigora on their websites, however the products are no longer available on the website.

Snapdeal has been asked to share the details of persons, the medical stores and companies involved and documents such as agreements, invoices, payment details, etc.