US: Indian-origin doctor charged with having firearms for drug trafficking

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New York: An Indian-origin doctor has been charged with having firearms for drug trafficking, according to federal authorities.

Sanjay Kumar, 50, was also charged with drug trafficking and money laundering, the federal prosecutor's office for Eastern North Carolina announced on Tuesday. The drugs he is accused of trafficking are opioid-type of pharmaceuticals meant to be painkillers and psychiatric medicines which can be misused as addictive drugs.

Prosecutors said Kumar unlawfully distributed Oxycodone and Alprazolam and conspired to illegally dispense Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Hydromorphone and Alprazolam. The charges were filed against him after a grand jury, a panel of citizens that makes the initial determination to prosecute, indicted him. That is the first stage in the US justice system and he will next be tried in court.

Kumar is from Bern in North Carolina. A local newspaper Sun Journal said he was a specialist in physiatry and headed a sports medicine practice. He was arrested in June at a traffic stop and according to authorities "trafficking levels" of drugs were found when his house was searched with a warrant.

According to the newspaper, when Kumar was produced before a judge at that time he said: "I am going to fight all these charges, humbly and boldly." He has also faced charges of stalking his neighbours, Sun Journal said.