Hyd man held for AP tragedy
The Prakasam police cracked the mystery behind the death of 16 persons due to consumption of hand sanitisers and arrested 10 persons including a Hyderabadbased illegal manufacturer of ‘Perfect Gold’ hand sanitisers and four others for distributing it.
Five of the arrested were proprietors of medical shops who sold the sanitiser repeatedly to the same persons, knowing fully well that they were consuming it, at Kurichedu in Prakasam district. The victims mostly included beggars, workers and rickshaw-pullers.
The police appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Markapuram officer on special duty K. Chowdeswari to probe the incident along with the SIB.
The Prakasam police cracked the mystery behind the death of 16 persons due to consumption of hand sanitisers and arrested 10 persons including a Hyderabadbased illegal manufacturer of ‘Perfect Gold’ hand sanitisers.
Five of the arrested were proprietors of medical shops who sold the sanitiser repeatedly to the same persons, knowing fully well that they were consuming it, at Kurichedu in Prakasam district. The victims mostly included beggars, workers and rickshaw-pullers.
The police authorities appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Markapuram officer on special duty K. Chowdeswari to probe the incident along with the Special Investigation Bureau.
According to Prakasam SP Siddharth Kaushal, the SIT collected 69 bottles from different places and concluded that the the victims had consumed eight brands of sanitisers and began tracking down the manufacturers.
The SIT grew suspicious of Perfect Gold sanitisers produced by Vandana Pharma and deputed two officers to Bengaluru and Hyderabad, based on the address on the labels, to
check the units. The bottles did not have a batch number.
The address of the firm turned out to be fake, but the investigators traced a distributor at Prashasannagar in Hyderabad on the internet. When grilled, the distributor said that one Sale Srinivas of Subhashnagar in Jeedimetla was supplying him the sanitisers. The SIT found large stocks of sanitisers in the premises of the distributor.
The team took Srinivas, who belongs to Siddapuram of Vikarabad district, into
custody. He does not have a licence from the drugs administration nor permission from the government to set up the manufacturing unit at Jeedimetla with the support of his elder brother Sivakumar.
Srinivas took the help of chemical suppliers Mohammed Dawood and Mohammed Hazi Sab of Balanagar, Hyderabad, to produce the sanitisers. They advised him to use the cheaper methanol instead of ethanol for higher profits. While methanol costs `30 to `35 per litre, ethanol is
priced at `180 to `200. Srinivas was found selling the product with a fake GST number. Though commercial tax officers in Hyderabad caught him twice, they reportedly let him off after collecting bribes.
Initially, Srinivas started selling sanitisers in an autorickshaw and one Kesav Agaraval, who was introduced to him, took up distribution of the product since the profits are very high. Police said Kesav knew that Srinivas was using dangerous methanol to make the sanitiser.