Major spurious antibiotics racket busted, 2 arrested

Hyderabad: A spurious drugs racket involving a shipment of counterfeit antibiotic tablets and narcotics from Uttar Pradesh to Telangana was busted in a joint operation by the Drugs Control Administration (DCA), Telangana, along with the special task force of the prohibition and excise department. The key accused, Gandla Ramulu, had been previously arrested in a similar case and was out on bail.The spurious drugs worth Rs 6.91 lakh included 30,000 tablets of antibiotics such as Jikcef LB, Jikcf AZ, Jikpod-CV and Jakclav 625, along with the narcotic patches. The antibiotics and narcotic drugs, specifically fentanyl transdermal patches, were being sent through couriers. Ramulu was shipping these counterfeit antibiotics into Telangana from UP with the assistance of Munishekhar, a resident of Proddutur in Andhra Pradesh. Both of them were caught in the special operation carried out on Nov 22. Officials had raided Shree Tirupati Courier Services Pvt. Ltd in Balanagar and found cardboard boxes from Shree Pharma, UP, addressed to Shiv Pharma Distributors, Hyderabad. "Our officers kept vigil on the medicine shipment received from UP and tracked the delivery of the stocks to Ramulu at Karmanghat. A crockery shop in Karmanghat was raided where Ramulu received the consignment. They seized four varieties of spurious antibiotic drugs from his possession. During interrogation, Ramulu revealed that he bought the spurious drugs from Prayagraj, UP, through Munishekhar. He further disclosed that the spurious drugs were intended to be distributed to Kumar of Karimnagar and Bhaskar of Kurnool for sale," said DCA director VB Kamalasan Reddy.Ramulu was arrested earlier in Feb by Malakpet Police in another spurious drug racket. His arrest led to an interstate joint operation of DCA with Uttarakhand where a manufacturing unit was busted. Ramulu was later released on bail, officials said.
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