Oxygen cylinders, worth ₹2,10,000 were seized in a raid conducted at a private company by officials of the Drugs Control Authority (DCA), Visakhapatnam, at Marripalem, on Tuesday.
A decoy operation was ordered by the Joint Director and Assistant Director, DCA, Visakhapatnam, based on a tip off that illegal sale and black marketing of medical oxygen was being conducted at Coromandel Roller Flour Mills beside the National Highway at Marripalem.
When D. Sunitha, Drugs Inspector Vigilance, contacted the company representative for oxygen, he gave her a code ‘00019’ and asked her to collect the cylinder at their firm by disclosing the code. When Ms. Sunitha went to the company premises, the company representative asked for her details and code. He asked her to pay ₹35,000 and he gave a bill for that on the name of Sangeetha (on which name she booked the cylinder). Six cylinders (of 10.6 litres capacity) were present in the firm.
As the company does not have any drug license, the six cylinders were seized from the possession of Naveen Gupta, Director of the firm by Drugs Inspector, Gajuwaka, N. Kalyani, under the cover of panchanama and Form-16.
