Adilabad Police crack ₹32-lakh ventilator theft case, arrest two

Adilabad Police have cracked the theft case involving four ventilators worth ₹32 lakh from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Adilabad on October 30, arresting two persons linked to an inter-State medical equipment theft racket, including the alleged buyer of the stolen equipment.

The police recovered all four ventilators, besides other medical devices stolen from the Nizamabad Government hospital in Telangana and two Government Hospitals in Maharashtra, and seized ₹1 lakh in cash.

Briefing the media on Saturday, Adilabad Superintendent of Police Akhil Mahajan identified the arrested persons as Sajjan Basanth Mote, 43, the prime accused from Chandrapur in Maharashtra and M. Konda Reddy, 35, a Hyderabad-based medical equipment dealer who allegedly agreed to purchase the stolen ventilators.

Another accused Abhijit, also from Chandrapur, is absconding.

On October 30, Sajjan and Abhijit allegedly entered RIMS posing as medical technicians and stole four functional ventilators from the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) wards on the hospital’s second floor.

The duo transported the ventilators to Maharahstra and contacted Konda Reddy to sell them. Despite knowing that the equipment was stolen, he allegedly agreed to buy it and travelled to Chandrapur, the SP said.

Police intercepted their car near the RTO office in Adilabad while they were transporting the stolen equipment towards Hyderabad.

The other recovered devices included a ventilator and an NST machine stolen from Nizamabad Government Hospital, a fetal monitor from Wani Government Hospital and a diathermy machine from Nagbhid Government Hospital in Maharashtra.