When asked for a reaction to the allegations and the latest development, the health secretary declined to comment.

“I have repeatedly issued orders to the Health Secretary for an audit. Still, the Health Secretary has not conducted any audit. The L-G and the BJP-led (Central) government should take strict action against these guilty officials. Shouldn’t these officials be suspended?” Bharadwaj asked.

“I want to know if an investigation is conducted now, will it be impartial, given that the officer responsible for the audit is himself implicated in the matter? Will the health secretary not influence the investigation? It is quite clear that the Centre is actively working to protect the officials involved in the wrongdoing,” he alleged.

Reacting to the allegations, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva accused Bharadwaj of trying to mislead the people about the “medicine scam”. “The people of Delhi are today asking that when he (Bharadwaj) got information about fake substandard medicines in March, why did he hide the matter from the public till December 19?” he asked.

“Bharadwaj, who has accused officials of delaying the investigation, should explain that when he was aware that many medicines were fake and substandard, why did he visit hospitals during the last few weeks and promote the distribution of those fake substandard medicines?” Sachdeva added.

A week after L-G V K Saxena’s directions, the Delhi government’s Directorate of Vigilance officially referred the matter to the MHA for investigation on Thursday. This came a day after samples of an anti-epilepsy drug collected from a Delhi government facility were found spurious as per a report from the Regional Drug Testing Laboratory, Chandigarh.