Times of India
05 April 2010
By A Selvaraj
Chennai, India

With the Crime–Branch CID taking over investigation of the expired and spurious drugs scandal which has rocked Tamil Nadu, fresh teams have been formed to unearth details about the operations of the kingpins in the racket.

“We received the orders entrusting the case to us on Saturday evening. Already three special teams are investigating another drug racket. Now, we have formed three new special teams headed by a deputy superintendent of police to deal with this case. On Sunday morning our investigating officers met the Chennai city police officers who were handling this case until Saturday and discussed about the progress made so far,” CB–CID additional director–general of police Archana Ramasundaram told the Times of India.

With possibilities of the expired and spurious drugs racket running beyond Tamil Nadu boundaries, Ramasundaram did not rule out the likelihood of an inter–state probe in the matter.

The city police have taken one of the prime accused, Meenakshi Sundaram, under their custody and on Monday will be produced before the XIII Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Egmore to be remanded in judicial custody. “We are planning to inform the court that the case has now been transferred to the CB–CID and seek the court’s permission to allow us to interrogate Meenakshi Sundaram in our custody. Ever since the racket was exposed, major drug seizures have been reported in Cuddalore, Vellore, Villupuram and other districts. We will send a letter to all these district superintendents of police asking for the details of the cases registered in their jurisdiction,” another senior police officer said.

Archana Ramasundaram would be meeting health secretary V K Subburaj to gather more details about the case. Besides, the agency will seek police custody of another accused Srinivasan who had misled investigators by giving them a fake address of a pharmacy in Hyderabad.