Akhil Bansal, who was an MBA student at Temple University in Philadelphia, operated a network that distributed 11 million prescription pills to 60,000 Americans.

"The evidence of your guilt is overwhelming, sir. You distributed poison throughout the country," US District Judge Paul Diamond said.

The sentencing came 32 months after Bansal was arrested with a plane ticket to India following a two-year probe dubbed Operation Cyberchase. It was US Drug Enforcement Administration's first-ever major investigation of its type.

Diamond said that Bansal showed no remorse whatsoever and that it was impossible to believe a trained doctor would not know that the pills involved require a prescription.

Defence lawyer Paul J. Hetznecker told the judge that Bansal ‘has been demonised by his own stubbornness and apparent arrogance in the courtroom’.

Hetzneicker said Bansal grew up in a strict family and did what he did to please his father.

"Behind the arrogance is a tremendous amount of pain," he was quoted as saying by Philadelphia Inquirer. "I do see a humbled and scared individual."

Bansal has said he was looking forward to his appeal.

The Bansal family operated a wholesale network, supplying dozens of illegal online pharmacies, offering Viagra, sedatives and painkillers without a prescription.