The Chennai police have arrested two more people, including a doctor at the King Institute, Guindy, for the illegal sale of Remdesivir and 24 vials were seized. The police officials said that among the accused, P Ramasundramis a doctor with King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Guindy. In the hospital, coronavirus patients are treated and a laboratory does the test for COVID-19. The other accused, N Karthik (27 years) was of Alandur and an assistant pharmacist at the same institute and was also a part of the team that was handling Remdesivir which was provided by the government.

A senior police officer said that the duo had tapped the vials as soon as they arrived at the Institute to treat critical patients. Karthik was in-charge of the pharmacy and kept a batch of vials separately as the stock arrived and used to make false records. For afew vials, Karthik used to recordas ‘damaged’ and take the original ones. Ramasundram sold the vial for about Rs 20,000 and for every vial sold, Karthik used to receive Rs 5,000.

A Civil Supplies CID team, which was led by Superintendent S Santhi, posed as customers and grabbed the accused. The team caught the duo on a tip-off on Tuesday and handed them to the Guindy police. Also, Ramasundram’s car and Karthik’s two-wheeler were seized and further investigation is ongoing. Almost seven incidents of arrests for illegal Remdesivir sale are reported across the city in the last one week and most of the accused people are doctors and hospital staff only. In total, more than 50 vials were seized during the arrests.

The Mathichiyam police have lodged a complaint after 8 bottles (100 mg) of Remdesivir vials went missing from the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai. As per the police, Assistant Resident Medical Officer of GRH, M Syed Abdul Kather (52 years), had made a complaint that a contract worker works in the COVID ward and took nine vials (100 gm) of Remdesivir to the ICU on Sunday to administer it to patients on request of hospital staff. The worker had kept the 9 vials in the ICU and returned back. When officials opened the boxes, they found that eight out of the nine vials were missing. The remaining one vial was found broken inside the pack. The information was conveyed to the higher officials and a departmental enquiry was initiated immediately and a complaint was also lodged with the police.

The police said that the vials were worth an estimated Rs 38,400, but it could cost more than Rs 3 lakh in black market. CCTV footage was being accessed by the police to identify culprits. A senior hospital official said that an unnamed contract employee was suspended and a memo was also issued to the staff on duty when the incident has occurred. The contract worker was taken for investigation and an inquiry is currently going on. The Dean of the GRH, Dr J Sangumani, had inspected Remdesivir stocks at the hospital.

Source: The New Indian Express