VISAKHAPATNAM:The City Task Force police arrested four persons, including two engineering graduates, on the charges of selling Fortwin injections to college students here Tuesday. The arrested have been identified as K Pydiraju (38) of Kallupakalu area, T Balakrishna (18), and engineering graduates P Saikrishna (23) and Y Shiva Kumar (22) from the city. The cops also seized 1,140 injections valued at Rs 1.15 lakh.
The CTF team led by ACP I Chittibabu and inspector Syed Mohammed Eliyas nabbed the four.
Police said that the four-member gang was procuring the injections from medical stores in Bhadrak of Odisha and selling them in the city.
The injections are to be sold strictly on production of prescription from certified doctors in Vizag and surrounding areas. But the gang procured the sedatives easily from Odisha.
Confessing to the crime, Saikrishna said that he was addicted to the sedatives and later became a drug peddler to get easy money.
Police said that the drug was purchased mostly by students from professional engineering colleges. The normal price of one ampoule in the market is about Rs 5, but the gang sells the sedatives at a price ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 400 depending on the demand.
The CTF team also arrested a medical store owner, Prakash, at Khurda Road, for violating norms and selling the sedatives to Vizag gangs.
A gang was arrested on March 9 on the same charge.