Two foreigners among four held for drugs peddling in Bengaluru
Bengaluru: Anti-narcotics wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB), sleuths from Vidyaranyapura, Konanakunte and V V Puram police stations arrested four individuals for drug peddling and seized narcotic substances worth 18.8 lakhs in separate raids across the city on Tuesday.
Two of the accused, Cyril (23) from Ghana and Immanuel (27) from Nigeria, were arrested in Vidyaranyapura police station limits. A cache of drugs worth 12 lakhs including MDMA crystals, ecstasy pills and cocaine were seized from them along with a two-wheeler and other items.
Primary investigations revealed that the accused, who were in India on student and working visas, purchased the drugs from their countrymen residing in Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi for cheaper rates and sold them in Bengaluru, sources stated.
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Konanakunte police have arrested an individual named Vikas (23) for selling drugs on the road behind Doddakallasandra Lake in Narayana Nagar. Drugs worth 1.8 lakhs including 2.02 kg marijuana and 10.6 kg poppy straw has been confiscated from him.
In a separate raid, V V Puram police arrested Rasik Kumar (22), a resident of West Bengal, for selling marijuana. An electronic weighing machine and 3.9 kg marijuana worth 5 lakhs were seized from him, police stated.
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
