Hyderabad: Gandhi nurse among 10 held for illegal sale of mucor drug

HYDERABAD: Task Force and Special Operations Team (SOT) sleuths of the city have arrested 10 persons, including a Gandhi Hospital nurse, a student, two medical shop owners and a pharmacist, since Wednesday and seized 41 vials of amphotericin-B injection, used in the treatment of mucormycosis infection.
A Task Force team arrested P Mukunda Rao, 32, a medical shop owner from Yousufguda, his associates, K Chiranjeevi, 22, and K Satish, 22, near NIMS and seized 30 vials of amphotericin B from their possession.Mukunda illegally procured 30 vials through a source in Bengaluru for Rs 7,800 a vial. He was planning to sell each vial for Rs 35,000 to customers, Task Force inspector K Nageswar Rao said.
Meanwhile, SOT of LB Nagar arrested G Manish, 23, a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) student from SVTK Apartment in Mithila Nagar of Pragati Nagar in Kukatpally, and recovered five vials of amphotericin-B injection from his possession on Wednesday afternoon. During the investigation, police found out that Manish obtained the injection vials from a friend, Arun, a medical representative. “Manish’s father runs a medical shop in Kukatpally and because of his father’s business, Manish came in contact with one Arun. We are yet to trace Arun,” Saroornagar inspector K Seetharam said.
In a related development, SOT sleuths of Balanagar arrested Rekha, a contract nurse working at Gandhi Hospital along with her associates, Mahesh, Raju and Prakash for indulging in illegal sale of amphotericin-B injections. According to Pet Basheerabad inspector S Ramesh, main accused Rekha obtained the amphotericin-B vials from the hospital and gave them to Mahesh, a private worker, who was a neighbour. Mahesh, in turn, gave the injection vials to his friend, Raju, who runs a medical shop in Warasiguda, and he along with a friend Prakash, was trying to sell each vial for Rs 35,000 when police caught them and seized four vials, the inspector said.
Police also arrested Balaraju, a pharmacist of a private hospital, and his colleague, Maruti, a lab technician, for trying to sell two vials of amphotericin-B for high price.