Drugs kingpin gives himself up

Archives - Chennai

NT Bureau | Fri, 26 Mar, 2010,02:28 PM . The key accused in the spurious drug cartel Meenakshi Sundaram today surrendered before VIII Metropolitan Magistrate Court at George Town in north Chennai. Meanwhile, a police team led by Assistant Commissioner Balachandran arrested Sundaram’s brother Manickam who was found to possess fake drugs during a raid in his store at Purasawalkam in Chennai. . Meenakshi Sundaram had been on the run ever since the police busted the racket involving sale of fake and recycled expired drugs last week. His anticipatory bail was dismissed yesterday by Madras High Court which said that only custodial interrogation would yield further clues to the sale of such medicine. Following the surrender this morning, police registered cases under IPC section 420, 465 and 468 against him and remanded him to judicial custody till 9 April. During the course of interrogation of Manickam, it was revealed that he had purchased drugs from Meenakshi Sundaran and another dealer Pradeep Chordia, proprietor of G H Pharmacy. He had fled to Rajasthan since the raids began. Yesterday, police caught him at the Chennai airport. The police seized expired drugs worth Rs 25 lakh from his garage at Purasawalkam and sealed four pharmacies, two of them owned by him. Another accused Sekar surrendered before the 13th Metropolitan Magistrate at Egmore yesterday. With Chordia’s arrest, eight persons have been arrested so far in connection with the racket while two others have given themselves up before a local court. It may be noted that the Tamilnadu government has appealed to the people not to panic over the seizure of expired drugs and has affirmed that necessary steps were being taken to stop their sale.

Posted in: news