In a major haul, the City Task Force (CTF) officials conducted raids at two different places and seized about 3,200 ampules of Pentazocine injections, also called Fortwin, in the limits of Bhimili and II-Town police stations late on Saturday night.
Acting on credible information, the CTF teams led by Assistant Commissioner of Police A. Trinad Rao, along with the Law and Order Police, conducted a raid at Bhimili and arrested a person on charge of possessing the sedative injections. City Commissioner of Police Ch. Srikanth and ADCP (Special Branch) K. Anand Reddy monitored the operation.
The accused has been identified as K. Hari Padma Raghava Rao alias Bhimili Hari (43), a native of Relli Veedhi in Bhimili. The CTF teams seized about 200 ampules of Fortwin injections packed in four boxes from his possession.
“Hariprasad used to purchase the sedative injections from one Anupam Adhikari from Kharagpur in West Bengal for about ₹2,000 per box (each containing 50 ampules) and sells the same at a price of ₹6,000 per box in Visakhapatnam,” said Mr. Trinad Rao.
Based on the inputs provided by the accused, the CTF teams conducted more raids in the limit of II-Town police station and arrested two more persons who were in possession of 3,000 ampules of sedative injections packed in 60 boxes.
The accused have been identified as Anupam Adhikary (29) and Koushik Chowdary (29), both natives of West Bengal.
“Anupam Adhikary used to transport the sedative injections to Visakhapatnam from Kharagpur and sell the same to some peddlers known to him. He used to purchase one box of injections for ₹1,300 and sell it for ₹2,000 in Visakhapatnam. Koushik is an accomplice of Anupam Adhikary,” said the ACP.
Further investigation is on to unearth the source of the drugs and the local clients, he added.
This is the second case of seizure of Fortwin injections in the last 10 days. On April 3, the CTF arrested two persons and seized about 270 injections in the MVP police station limits. The ACP said that during the investigation, they received many leads about the sale of sedatives at Bhimili.
Counselling centre
The City Police have appealed to the parents to keep a close watch on the behaviour of their children. In case of signs of depression, parents must immediately take their children for counselling. The parents may also avail of the facility of the police counselling centre ‘Marpu’, where several drug-addicted children were given counselling.
