Hyderabad: Hyderabad police have arrested a bunch racketeers who were illegally selling life-saving Remdesivir, Actemra (400 mg and 80 mg) Fabiflu tablets and rapid testing kits at five to six times the market rate.

The police arrested eight people from Hyderabad and one from Delhi. The cops are investigating how the men got access to the drugs given that these are meant to be sold to individuals. The drugs are prescribed only for hospitals and institutions working with Covid- 19 patients. The accused from Delhi is believed to have flown in with Actemra.

Speaking to the reporter Hyderabad CP Anjani Kumar said that they will investigate the source of the medicines; among those arrested K. Venkata Subramaniam, Rahul Agarwal and Santosh Kumar are businessmen. Mohammed Shakeer, K. Kishore and Saif Ali Mohammed are wholesale drug distributors. Gagan Khurana is Delhi based commission agent and Firdous Mohammed is employee in a pharma distribution company.

Subramaniam told to the police he purchased some of the drugs from a prominent company situated at Sangareddy. Later he and the other accused through their network sold the drugs to needy persons and had been running the racket for atleast since one month.

Covifer’s (Remdesivir) MRP- Rs. 5, 400 but was being sold in the black market by the accused for Rs. 30K to 40K, similarly Actemra (Tocillzumab) the accused sold 400 mg injection with an MRP of Rs. 40K was sold Rs. 90K to 1 lakh. Actemra 80 mg with an MRP of Rs. 8K was being sold for Rs. 25K, and also the accused sold Fabiflu for Rs. 4K to 5K per strip when the MRP is Rs. 3, 500.

Pharmacist booked for cheating: Panjagutta police registered a case against a pharmacist who had offered to sell three Remdesivir injections to the family of a Covid- 19 patient at an inflated price.

According to the police sources, pharmacist had demanded Rs. 63K for each injection while the MRP is Rs. 5, 400, through one of my friends. As per the complainants version that, I came to know that one pharmacy was selling it, I rushed to the pharmacy, after sometime, the seller handed over three injections for Rs. 63K outside the shop. The police booked the pharmacist under section 420 of IPC.