In a major catch, the city police busted four gangs who were allegedly involved in supplying and selling sedative injections to people across the city.
The police arrested eight persons and seized 7,250 ampoules of Pentazocine Lactate (Fortwin sedative injections) from them.
In one case, the II Town Police on the night of May 14, in association with City Task Force (CTF), conducted a raid near a dilapidated area at Railway Quarters and arrested three persons while they were allegedly involved in supplying these sedative injections to youth.
The arrested persons were identified as Kalla Hari Padma Raghava Rao, P. Ravi and K. Chiranjeevi. Five more accused who were involved with this gang are yet to be arrested. Among them, Raghava Rao is an ex-offender who is involved in six cases.
The police have seized 2,100 ampoules of injections in 42 boxes and 21 kg of ganja from them.
In another case, the police along with a CTF team on May 17 night conducted raids near a lodge at Allipuram and busted another gang of three persons — B. Srinu alias Lara, B. Lakshmi and G. Venkata Sai, while they were allegedly trying to supply sedative injections. One more accused is yet to be arrested in the case. The police have seized 2,050 ampoules of sedative injections in 41 boxes.
In another case, the officials from Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) Pendurthi arrested a person named G. Uma Maheshwar for allegedly being in possession of 3,000 ampoules of injections in 60 boxes. Another team of SEB in PM Palem arrested B. Venkatesh who was in possession of 100 ampoules of injections.
Addressing a press conference at police conference hall here on Thursday, Commissioner of Police, CM Trivikrama Varma said that in all the cases, the accused procured the sedatives from persons from West Bengal.
“The sedative is a synthetic narcotic drug used as anaesthesia before surgery. This should not be sold without a doctor’s prescription. Even after prescription, the medical shop representative should note down the details of those to whom it is being sold. But it is sold unauthorisedly,” said the Police Commissioner.
The Commissioner said that using the sedative leads to addiction and may cause severe respiratory issues. “We urge the youth to stay away from such sedatives as they can be life-threatening,” he said.
In all the cases, the accused procured injections for ₹30 to ₹40 each and were selling the same at ₹300, he said, adding that further investigation is on.
