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Jail for Indian doctor for smuggling pills

Philadelphia (U.S.): An Indian doctor has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for smuggling 11 million prescription pills, including Viagra and sedatives, from India and distributing the same to 60,000 Americans through his Internet pharmacy. “The evidence of your guilt is overwhelming, Sir. You distributed poison throughout the country,” said U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond while sentencing Akhil Bansal, 29, an MBA student in Temple University. Dr. Bansal told the court he truly believed that he did not commit the serious crime. He said he planned to appeal the court’s decision.

But Dr. Bansal and his friend Sanjeev Srivastav risked trial, arguing that what they were doing was legal. Mr. Srivastav was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The judge said it was implausible, as Dr. Bansal had argued that a trained doctor could believe that it was legal to distribute pills without prescription.

The judge read aloud from an e-mail Dr. Bansal wrote to one online pharmacy — a man operating out of Romania and a trailer in Texas.

“In this business, we take all the risk right from buying of medicine from India, sending it to U.S., storage in U.S. and then shipping it to your customer’s doors,” Dr. Bansal wrote.

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