The Chillakallu police, which busted an inter-State Remdesivir injections smuggling racket, picked up gynaecologist Bhavya, the third suspect in the case, from Hyderabad on Friday.
The police seized 100 Remdesivir vials that was being transported in a TSRTC bus from Hyderabad to Guntur, at Garikapadu checkpost on A.P.-Telangana border on Thursday and arrested M. Ajay Kumar a hospital employee and G. Subba Rao, a doctor and Bhavya father, who runs Bhushaiah Memorial Nursing Home at Yedlapadu in Guntur district.
During questioning, the suspects reportedly confessed that the vials were packed at the Landmark Hospital, owned by Bhavya. The gynaecologist was absconding soon after the police busted the racket on Thursday.
Special teams formed to probe into the illegal transportation and black marketing of Remdesivir visited Telangana and Guntur, said Krishna Superintendent of Police M. Ravindranath Babu. “The police are trying to find out how the Landmark Hospital management got such a huge stock of Remdesivir,” the SP told The Hindu.
‘Stock registers, call data being verified’
Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) Additional Superintendent of Police Vakul Jindal, who is monitoring the probe, said the investigating officers were trying to find out whether more people were involved in the case. “We suspect the role of some pharmacists and hospital staff in Telangana in the illegal trade. The police are verifying the medical indents, stock registers, phone call data of the accused,” he said, adding that the Chillakallu and Jaggaiahpet police are questioning Bhavya about how she had procured the stock and other information.
“During a raid on Bhushaiah Memorial Nursing Home at Yadlapadu, the police found that a few COVID patients are bring treated illegally. We spoke to the Guntur Rural Police and the patients have been shifted to the designated COVID hospitals,” Mr. Ravindranath Babu said.
Two accused remanded
The police on Friday produced Ajay Kumar and Dr. Subba Rao before the Nandigama court, which remanded them to judicial custody . “A case under Section 27 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act has been registered,” said Nandigama DSP G. Nageswar Reddy.
