BENGALURU: Continuing the drive against black-marketing of the Remdesivir drug, Central Crime Branch sleuths on Friday arrested four more suspects, and have seized 55 vials so far. Until now, officials have arrested a total of 16 suspects in connection with this case, including two medical representatives, with all of them being accused of selling the drug at prices in upwards of Rs 10,000 per vial.
The arrested are Hujefa (29), Martin (32) and Prakash (37) -- all staffers at medical stores, and K P Suman Karthikeya (35), a medical distributor. A senior police officer said that five days ago, three persons were arrested for involvement in similar crimes, and they revealed the names of their associates who are involved in the distribution of pharma products.
Based on a tipoff, a special team searched their firms on Commercial Street and arrested the suspects. Some of their associates, meanwhile, managed to escape and efforts are on to nab them. It may be recalled that three suspects, Rajesh, Shakeeb and Sohail, who were running a pharmacy named Gurushree Medicals in Suddaguntepalya, were arrested by the Central Crime Branch for illegal stocking of Remdevisir. They were selling the Remdesivir drug at Rs 10,500 a vial, which is much higher than its original MRP. 11 injection bottles were recovered during the probe.