Hyderabad: 

“She was using cocaine many times a day—sometimes even 10 times in 24 hours. Her addiction was so bad that she would wake up every two or three hours at night to take the drug,” a source involved in the investigation told TOI.

A former CEO of a well-known private hospital in Hyderabad, who was recently arrested along with a courier from Mumbai, was said to be seriously addicted to cocaine, according to Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB) officials. The police said the 34-year-old woman even sold a property worth Rs 1 crore to pay for her drug habit.

Police also said that besides cocaine, the doctor was taking sleeping pills. Around 20 days before her arrest on May 9, police visited her home to warn her family. They told them she was under watch and suggested sending her to a rehab centre.

“But she behaved badly with the police and argued with them,” the source said. On the day she was caught, the doctor went to meet a man named Balakrishna Rampyar Ram, a courier from Mumbai who was delivering a package.

“She didn’t know the police were still keeping an eye on her. Officers believed she would try to get the drugs again, so they continued to follow her,” one officer said. They tracked her movements and saw her meeting Balakrishna and giving him Rs 5 lakh to buy the drugs.

Investigators believe that Thakkar was supplying drugs to the doctor regularly and think they might have met at parties. Thakkar has not been arrested yet. “Balakrishna came to Hyderabad about 10 times last month. This makes us think he might have been selling drugs to more people. He used to be a gig worker before getting into drug delivery,” the source shared.

Even though the doctor had switched on the ‘disappearing messages’ feature on WhatsApp, police found some chats between her and Thakkar before she met Balakrishna. One of the messages said: “Last time was 57? 8 left in total and sent 5 this time so 3 left.” Police are now trying to understand these messages and have found more chats like this.

After getting the money, Balakrishna returned to Mumbai and handed it over to a man named Vansh Thakkar, who works as a DJ and is believed to be the main drug supplier. “Thakkar gave the drugs to Balakrishna, who then came back to Hyderabad and gave them to the doctor. That’s when both of them were arrested,” the police added.

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