Pharma Heist: Gang nabbed with palladium on carbon worth Rs.4.5 crore in Sangareddy

The police recovered PdC worth Rs.4.5 crore from the accused and arrested six persons. Palladium, which is used to make the catalyst PdC, is said to be the costliest among the four precious metals of gold, silver, platinum and palladium

Sangareddy: In a rare case, the Sangareddy police busted a gang that was stealing costly Palladium on Carbon (PdC), a form of palladium, a chemical element and expensive rare metal, which is used as a catalyst in pharma companies.

The police recovered PdC worth Rs.4.5 crore from the accused and arrested six persons. Palladium, which is used to make the catalyst PdC, is said to be the costliest among the four precious metals of gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

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Speaking to news reporters in Sangareddy on Thursday, Superintendent of Police Chennuri Rupesh said the prime accused Allam Sambasivudu, who had the past experience of working in pharmaceutical companies, had decided to steal PdC from pharma companies.

Sambasivudu formed a group with Prasad Saheb Sitole and Anmole Jagge, who worked with Sambasivudu in a pharma company in Pune. Sambasivudu shifted to Hyderabad and continued the stealing and selling of PdC. The modus operandi was that they would befriend store managers in pharma companies to steal the chemical.

In such one incident, Sambasivudu stole 110 kg of wet PdC and 55 kg of dry PdC from Arena Life Sciences at Yavapur under the Sadasivpet police station limits on February 8. Sambasivudu took the help of the store manager Tumma Mukkanti Reddy.

Following a complaint from the company management, the police launched an investigation and nabbed the accused at Maddikunta Crossroad on Wednesday.

The SP said the accused had also stolen PdC worth Rs.35 lakh from a pharma company in Gummadidala and 8kg of PdC from another company in IDA Bollaram in the past.

The gang was also involved two other such cases in Bidar and Gujarat. Five others, who were also part of the gang, were absconding. The arrested persons were Sambsivudu, Prasad, Aditya Ankush, Mukkanti Reddy, Matta Kutumba Rao and Gummadi Srinivas Rao.