NIZAMABAD/HYDERABAD: In a shocking incident, a doctor and an ANM were arrested by Nizamabad One Town Police on Thursday after they repackaged saline solution as Remdesivir injections and sold them to a Covid-19 patient being treated at a private hospital in Nizamabad Town. K Ranjith Kumar, a native of Cheepur village of Armoor mandal, had admitted his brother K Mahesh Babu in a private hospital in Nizamabad for Covid treatment.
When doctors at the hospital asked him to find Remdesivir injections for his brother, Ranith approached Dr A Sai Krishnama Naidu from the same hospital, who directed him to P Satish Goud, an ANM at another hospital. Goud handed over five Remdesivir vials to Ranjith at the cost of Rs 85,000. However, after inspecting the vials, the doctor at the private hospital said that the injection was fake and filled with saline water. Ranjith immediately approached the police and registered a complaint. The police questioned the two accused, after which they confessed to their crime.
Nine nabbed for selling injection at high prices
Five persons, including a student, were arrested on Thursday by the Malakpet police for allegedly selling vials of Remdesivir at inflated prices. In Malkajgiri, sleuths with the Uppal police station and Special Operations Team arrested two persons. In the first case, the accused Banoth Nares, 23, Nimma Ashok, 22, Dhiravath Saida, 21, Manikonda Haribabu, 21, and Rathod Akash, 20, all residents of Hyderabad, were allegedly selling each vial of for Rs 36,000 against the market price of around Rs 3,500.
In the second case, one of the accused Kakumani Dilip was working as a nursing staff at Pragma Hospital, Boduppal, while the second accused Vallamalla Madhu, 22, was working as a lab technician in Sai Sanjeevani Hospital, Kothapet. According to the police, Dilip had been procuring the Remdesivir doses from the hospital bought by the attendees of Covid- 19 patients. He would take the vials when a patient passed away. Another accused, Pradeep, who is absconding, had allegedly called the duo asking for the vials. Dileep and Madhu agreed to sell three doses for Rs 30,000 each.
In a similar case, Nizamabad Government General Hospital (GGH) staff G Sravani and her husband Arun were arrested by IV Town police on Thursday night for selling Remdesivir injections at higher prices. It is pertinent to note that the disposal of medical waste is to be done carefully by hospitals lest used vials and other material be reused or repackaged by miscreants.
Cops nab pharma store owner for selling antiviral injection in black market
A 39-year-old pharmacy store owner was arrested on Thursday by the East Zone police at Kachiguda for reportedly selling Remdesivir vials at inflated prices. Tipped off by the Commissioner’s Task Force, the East Zone cops cornered the accused B Srihari, who allegedly used to sell a vial of Remdesivir for Rs 30,000, while a vial usually costs around Rs 3,500, at his establishment opposite TX Hospital in Kachiguda. According to the police, he used to procure the vials from Vinay, who would supply him the generic version of the anti-viral drug at much lower costs. The police arrested the accused and seized four 100 gram vials of Remdesivir. However, Vinay is still absconding, but the police are tracking him down