Black fungus drug racket in Hyderabad: 3 held, ESI doctor absconding

HYDERABAD: Special Operations Team (SOT) of Madhapur has arrested three persons indulging in illegal sale of Amphotericin B injections used for treatment of mucormycosis (black fungus). The main accused is a doctor working at ESI Hospital, Sanathnagar. He is on the run, police said.
The arrested accused are S Vikas Reddy, 30, a medical shop owner , Ch Nagaraju, 27, a private employee, both from Chintal, and P Sreedhar, 48, a medical shop owner from Suchitra. Their associate and main accused, Dr Obul Reddy, a general physician at ESI Hospital, Sanathnagar, is absconding.
On Thursday, SOT sleuths arrested Vikas, Sreedhar and Nagaraju through a decoy operation. Police seized 45 vials of Amphotericin-B injections, three vials of Ceftriaxone, Tazobactam and Olcefone-XL, Rs 18 lakh cash, a car and a scooter from their possession.
Pet Basheerabad ACP VVS Ramalinga Raju said Obul Reddy had been illegally supplying Amphotericin vials to Vikas Reddy to sell them to customers for exorbitant prices. Vikas was selling them to Nagaraju, who in turn was selling them to Sreedhar. “The accused were selling each vial for Rs 38,000 to Rs 45,000,” the ACP said.
Among the accused, Shreedhar was pasting fake Amphotericin B lables on other drugs like Ceftriaxone, Tazobactam and selling them to gullible clients, the ACP said.