Chennai, May 23 (IANS): Two men who were arrested by the Mylapore special police team for selling drug Remdesivir at a high price were detained under the Goonda Act. The arrested are Bhuvaneshwar, 36, owner of Medistar Healthcare Ltd. and Nishith Bhandari, 32, of Navkar Distributors.

Bhandari, according to the police had sold Remdesivir vials to Bhuvaneshwar without valid documents. The police team had seized 145 vials of Remdesivir.

The city police have so far registered 14 cases of illegal sale of Remdesivir vials and arrested 34 men. However, this is the first time that two arrested for illegal sale of Remdesivir drug are charged under Goonda Act.

It may be noted that the Chennai police commissioner Shankar Jiwal had issued a stern warning to those selling Remdesivir drug at higher prices that they would be dealt with an iron hand and that they will be charged with Goonda Act.

Chennai had witnessed huge serpentine queues for Remdesivir drug in front of the hospital that sold it and people had entered into heated arguments with those in charge of the sale.

Following these developments, the Tamil Nadu government has directly supplied Remdesivir to private hospitals and had directed the police department to act sternly on all those who sold the medicine at a higher price.