Mumbai, Feb. 23: A man spotted buying medicine for his dead brother has taken the lid off a drug racket that has been flourishing in Mumbai’s biggest cancer hospital.

Brijesh Ahirwal was detected buying expensive cancer drugs at subsidised rates at the Tata Memorial Hospital pharmacy last December, four months after his brother died of the disease in the hospital.

He is believed to have made the purchase against a red-coloured slip — a bedside intent form — issued to patients in the hospital. Since this is an authentic document, the pharmacy promptly sells medicines listed on it to the bearer.

The racket, in which a gang of seven youngsters was arrested today, involved buying the subsidised drugs with medical documents of dead or discharged patients and selling them at higher rates.

The vigilance department of the hospital — to which a lot of people from Bengal go for treatment — busted the scam after the pharmacy smelt a rat over Brijesh buying medicine for his brother, who was a railway employee.

“Departments like the railways bear the cost of treatment of their employees. We provide medicines on credit, and the railways pay the bill later. We suspected foul play when Brijesh tried to buy medicines though his brother had passed away,” a hospital official said.

Based on a complaint by the hospital’s vigilance officer, Bhoiwada police picked up the gang on charges of forgery, cheating and fraud running up to Rs 76.96 lakh.

The frauds are Vijay Ahirwal, 25, Mohammed Shamshuddin Sheikh, 21, Brijesh Ahirwal, 20, Amit Singh, 21, Sanjay Verma, 21, Kesarinandan Prajapati, 21, and Santosh alias Pallani Subbiah Thevar, 33.

Bhoiwada senior inspector Dinesh Verma said the group gypped unsuspecting patients in Tata hospital by selling them injections at very high prices. “The medicines costing upwards of Rs 1 lakh would be available at a much cheaper rate at these stores,” he added.

A hunt is on for one Ajay Kumar, believed to be the mastermind of the racket.