Maharashtra FDA cancels Johnson & Johnson's baby powder manufacturing licence
Mumbai, Sep 17: Maharashtra's Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Friday cancelled the baby powder manufacturing licence of Johnson & Johnson Pvt Ltd "in the interest of public health at large".
In a release, the state government agency said the company's product, Johnson's Baby Powder, may affect the skin of newborn babies.
Samples of the powder for babies did not conform to standard pH value during a laboratory test, the regulator said.
The release said the action was taken after Kolkata-based Central Drugs Laboratory's conclusive report that concludes "the sample does not conform to IS 5339:2004 with respect to the test for pH".
According to the release, FDA had drawn samples of Johnson's Baby Powder from Pune and Nashik for quality check purposes.
The government analyst had declared the samples as "not of the standard quality" as they do not comply with IS 5339:2004 specification for skin powder for infants in the test pH, it said.
Thereafter, FDA issued a show-cause notice to Johnson and Johnson under the Drugs Cosmetics Act 1940 and Rules, besides issuing instructions to the company to recall the stock of the said product from market, said the release.
The firm "didn't accept the report" of the government analyst and challenged it in court for sending it to the Central Drugs Laboratory, it added.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
