Doctor, IT professional, sex worker among nine held in Hyderabad drug bust, accused used Grindr to sell MDMA

In a major drug bust, Hyderabad police arrested nine individuals including a surgeon, an IT recruiter, and a sex worker, who were allegedly procuring MDMA from a known peddler. The accused, Ramakanth, reportedly sourced drugs from Bengaluru and sold them using Grindr, a gay dating app, to customers.

Hyderabad: A doctor, an IT professional and a sex worker were among the nine persons caught by the Hyderabad police following a drug bust in the city on Thursday.

According to the police, two persons Ramakanth alias Kiran (44) a resident of Chilkalguda and native of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh and Mudavath Prasad (30), of L B Nagar and a resident of Achampet in Telangana were allegedly running a drug racket.

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“Ramakanth, who is a noted drug peddler had purchased 100 grams of MDMA from a Nigerian in Bengaluru and brought it to the city. With the help of his associate Prasad, he was selling it to customers. On receiving information, a raid was conducted at his flat and he was caught,” said Dr. B Bala Swamy, DCP (east).

After Ramakanth’s arrest, the police began tracing his customers. During the investigation, the police found that a surgeon, Atif Abdul Samee, who practices at a hospital at Malakpet and resident of Saidabad was among the buyers. Others included Shaik Sameer, an IT recruiter and a resident of Karmanghat, K Vinay Kumar, a sex worker and six others were found to be among his customers.

Ramakanth had created an account on Grindr, a gay dating app, and was using it to contact customers. “He displayed a symbol on his profile to indicate drug availability. It is observed that the accused and consumers were addicted to bisexual activities under the influence of drugs,” said the DCP.

The police said Ramakanth purchased the drug at Rs. 10,000 per gram and sold it to customers at Rs.15,000 per gram. Efforts are underway to identify more individuals who procured drugs from him. The police are also examining his call recording data and social media logs.