Bihar man held with Remdesivir worth over Rs 14 lakh

Imphal: Imphal East district police apprehended one Bihar native smuggler along with 441 vials of DESREMTM ( Remdesivir for injection 100mg) drug which is suspected to be fake.

The drug would worth about Rs 14,99,400.

The smuggler was apprehended at New Checkon near Tribal market at about 1pm on Monday.

He was identified as one Lalo Sah, 55, son of late Bauku Sha of Sasam village, Samastipur district, Bihar, under the jurisdiction of Hassanpur police station.

Lalo was detained by Porompat Police team while conducting frisking and checking in connection with the ongoing curfew and the pandemic at New Checkon near Tribal Market, Imphal East on Monday at about 1pm.

While checking his belongings of two luggage, some clothes and 411 pieces of DESREMTM were detected. On further examination and verification, he failed to produce the relevant documents of the said detected drugs, superintendent of police N. Herojit told reporters here on Tuesday.

Herojit said Lalo was arrested and seized the drug along with a mobile phone with an AIRTEL sim card bearing number +919546808036 and one boarding pass of Air Asia bearing PNR number E9E92R.

A case has been registered at Porompat police station for further investigation, he added.

He said the seized drug is used while treating Covid-19 patients.

Upon further enquiry with the state health services authority regarding the drug, State Drug Controller-Directorate of health services, Manipur informed that after physical testing of the drug sample the drug have been compared with genuine drug sample of the same company maintained in the directorate and based on various discrepancies, it has certified that the overall impression of the seized items seems to be a fake product and no private individual can procure the said drugs without any proper document from the concerned authority, he added.

Lalo reached Imphal with another person from Guwahati at Bir Tikendrajit International Airport on Saturday. He was told that one party will come to get the said seized drugs and told him to keep with him. He has been staying at a rented house located at Sangaiprou, Imphal West and the police team had conducted search of the rented room, the senior police officer said.

On examination and based on the disclosure of Lalo, the police team detected the location of the other person somewhere at Guwahati and to nab the said person two police officials were engaged. However, the location of the said person again detected somewhere at Kolkata so the operation of the two police personnel is kept on standby, he added.

There is high demand of the drug at Myammar border and it is heard that the drug is transported to Myanmar illegally, he said.

The seized drugs are yet to be tested clinically in order to find out the drugs are fake or genuine.

The arrested person was produced at Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal East through video conferencing and has been remanded to police custody for eight days.

+ There are no comments

Add yours