Chennai: Five more people, including two in southern Tuticorin district, were arrested for selling Remdesivir injection, used for treating Covid patients, in blackmarket at higher prices.’
In Tuticorin, police seized 42 Remdesivir vials from the duo and the district police is planning to detain them under the Goondas Act as suggested by Chief Minister M K Stalin, who had termed selling the drug as a serious offence, especially during the pandemic.
The other three arrests were made at upmarket Indira Nagar area in Chennai on Sunday from whom two bottles were seized.
On Saturday, 24 people were arrested and 243 Remdesivir injections were seized from them in Chennai.
Earlier, six people, including two from Chennai, were nabbed on Friday.
With this 35 people, including 29 in Chennai were arrested in this connection during the last 2-3 days.
Reports received here from Tuticorin said, acting on information that a wholesale drug store in a complex was selling Remdesivir at higher rates, a special police team headed by Kovilpatti Deputy Superintedent of Police Kalaikadiavan and Health department deputy director Dr Anitha raided the place and seized 42 remdesivir vials.
The shop owner Shanmugam and his brother Ganesan were arrested and they are expected to be detained under the Goondas Act.
In Chennai, a special team attached to the Adyar Deputy Commissioner of Police arrested three persons for selling the drug worth Rs 800 for Rs 25,000 to propspective online clients and seized two bottles from them, besides Rs 89,000 in cash.
Those arrested were Adithyan, a medicine salesman from K K Nagar, Rajkumar who runs a pharmacy in Pattalam and Syed Amjed, who works in a medical shop in Thousand Lights area.
On Friday, police arrested six people across the State, including two in Chennai, and seized over 150 vials of Remdesivir, which were allegedly smuggled from Bangladesh.
The arrested were identified as S Vishnu Kumar from Virudhunagar, Shanmugam, and his brother Ganesan from Kovilpatti, Praveen Kumar from Tirunelveli, B Bhuvaneswar of Maduravoyal and R Nishit Bandari from Kondithope in Chennai.
Acting on information, police deployed a decoy and arrested Vishnu Kumar, a pharmacist in a private hospital on Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road near the Kandigai bus stop.
He told them that Shanmugam had sent him the vials. Shanmugam and Ganesan were arrested in Kovilpatti and 42 vials were seized from them. During interrogation, Shanmugam revealed that Praveen Kumar had sent him the vials, following which he was arrested in Tirunelveli and four vials were seized from him.
During interrogation Praveen Kumar said he had procured the drug from a pharmaceutical company in Maduravoyal and the its owner Bhuvaneswar was arrested.
Further interrogation revealed that Nishit Bandari had originally sent him the vials. Police seized seven vials from him and 145 vials from Bhuvaneswar.
Nishit had received the vials from another pharmaceutical firm in Hyderabad, which had imported the drug from Bangladesh.
So far 35 people were arrested in Tamilnadu for selling the drug in blackmarket. This included 29 in Chennai alone during the last three days.