MUMBAI: A Class X dropout has turned out to be the mastermind of the fraudulent Covid-19 vaccination camp at Kandivali’s Hiranandani Heritage society.
Mahindra Singh, 39, who has been a member of a medical association for the past 17 years was arrested on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday along with four others.
While it is still not clear whether the vaccine was spurious, police concluded that it was not procured from authorised sources and seals on the vials were broken.
“The group conducted fraudulent vaccination camps at nine locations,” said regional additional commissioner Dilip Sawant.
“No Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) permission was taken for the housing society camp, which is mandatory as per guidelines. Not a single doctor was present at the site nor were any medical arrangements made to tackle any emergency,” Sawant added.
Besides Singh, police have arrested Sanjay Gupta, a middleman, who was present at the site to conduct the vaccination camps.
Gupta would collect money for the camp and hand it over to Singh.
Police have seized a sum of Rs 9 lakh from Singh’s account.
Two employees of private hospitals, Chandan Singh and Nitin Mode, have also been held.
The duo, who used hospital ID-passwords without authorisation to log in to the Co-Win platform, have also been held.
“The vaccines were ferried to the camps by Qareem Akbar Ali who has been arrested from a railway station in Madhya Pradesh as he was trying to flee,” said an official.
The vaccine certificates issued to beneficiaries are forged as the date, time and location of jabs were incorrectly inputted.
Police have applied charges of cheating, impersonation, forgery and adulteration under the Indian penal code (IPC) besides provisions of the Information Technology Act.
Mahindra Singh, 39, who has been a member of a medical association for the past 17 years was arrested on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday along with four others.
While it is still not clear whether the vaccine was spurious, police concluded that it was not procured from authorised sources and seals on the vials were broken.
“The group conducted fraudulent vaccination camps at nine locations,” said regional additional commissioner Dilip Sawant.
“No Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) permission was taken for the housing society camp, which is mandatory as per guidelines. Not a single doctor was present at the site nor were any medical arrangements made to tackle any emergency,” Sawant added.
Besides Singh, police have arrested Sanjay Gupta, a middleman, who was present at the site to conduct the vaccination camps.
Gupta would collect money for the camp and hand it over to Singh.
Police have seized a sum of Rs 9 lakh from Singh’s account.
Two employees of private hospitals, Chandan Singh and Nitin Mode, have also been held.
The duo, who used hospital ID-passwords without authorisation to log in to the Co-Win platform, have also been held.
“The vaccines were ferried to the camps by Qareem Akbar Ali who has been arrested from a railway station in Madhya Pradesh as he was trying to flee,” said an official.
The vaccine certificates issued to beneficiaries are forged as the date, time and location of jabs were incorrectly inputted.
Police have applied charges of cheating, impersonation, forgery and adulteration under the Indian penal code (IPC) besides provisions of the Information Technology Act.
