Hyderabad: 8 held for illegally selling COVID-19 drugs
Jul 15, 2020
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], July 15 : Hyderabad Police has claimed to have busted an interstate black marketing gang for allegedly selling emergency drugs for COVID-19, and seized Rs 55,000 cash along with drugs worth over Rs 35 lakh. Eight people have been arrested by the police so far.
"On July 14, Commissioner's Task Force, South Zone team, with the assistance of Chanderghat Police apprehended an eight-member gang who were dealing with generic versions of Remdesivir, Actemra and Fabiflu tablets which are being used as an antiviral medicine for coronavirus patients," said Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar while addressing a press conference yesterday.
Among the alleged recovered items, the drugs worth Rs 35,55,000 are -- 51 Remdesiver 100 mg injections, nine Actemra 400 mg and four 80 mg injections. Besides, Rs 55,000 in cash were also seized, as per the Hyderabad Police Commissioner.
Speaking about the gang-members, Kumar said, "The prime accused K Venkata Subramanyam, also known as Phani, is a native of Secunderabad who runs a company (Sri Medicare Products) and operates from his residence at Anandbagh. He claimed to be purchasing the drugs from Hetero Company, a drug manufacturing giant, in Sangareddy."
Kumar further said that these members were passing on the drugs from one person to another with a certain profit margin for each.
"Phani was selling the drugs to his associate Santosh Kumar for the profit worth Rs 3,500. Subsequently, Santosh was selling the products to K Kishore and Mohd. Shakir for a profit of Rs 6,000. Further, these two were selling it to Rahul and the end Rahul was also selling the same drugs to customers through Firdouz and Saif for-profit worth Rs 15,000 - Rs 18,000," added Kumar.
These men used to deal with Gagan Khurana, a native of Delhi's Shahdara, who has also been identified as the main black marketer, as per Kumar.
"The medicine was finally sold to the customers, priced between Rs 30,000 - Rs 40,000 as per the demand," added Kumar.
All the seized materials, along with the drugs and the gang-members, have been handed over to SHO Chanderghat Police Station for further investigation.
