After receiving a tip-off about black-marketing of Remdesivir, the Pune rural police arrested four persons for allegedly selling fake Remdesivir injections in the Baramati area.
Maharashtra | 4 people arrested for selling fake Remdesivir injections in Baramati.
— ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2021
3 injections were recovered from their possession. The injections, labelled as Remdesivir, were filled with paracetamol in liquid form: Narayan Shirgaonkar, Deputy SP, Pune rural (17.04) pic.twitter.com/IZN47KjolW
A police official informed that three injenction vials labeled as Remdesivir, filled with liquid form of paracetamol were seized from the accused. Baramati is home town of NCP chief Sharad Pawar who also represents it in the Lok Sabha.
Narayan Shirgavkar, deputy superintendent of police, Baramati division informed that the accused were selling the fake drug at ₹35,000 per vial while its authorized market price is ₹1,100. “We have arrested four people under relevant sections of the IPC, Essential Commodities Act, Drug & Cosmetics Act and Drugs (Price Control) Act,” he added.
According to the information given by the police, Prashant Gharat (23), Shankar Bhise (22), Dilip Gaikwad (35) and Sandeep Gaikwad (20) have been arrested.
The four accused have sold seven duplicate injections to the relatives of Covid-19 positive patients until now. The police also fear that the patients to whom the fake injections were sold might develop some side effects. The police are now tracing the relatives of seven patients, to whom the injections have been sold.
The arrests were made after laying a trap upon receiving information, where the police recovered two Remdesivir vials. The vial seal was broken when the injection was examined and injection holes were visible in the rubber caps.
One of the accused worked as a ward boy at various hospitals and procured used Remdesivir vials to fill them with the liquid form of paracetamol while others found needy customers to sell the fake injections, the police officer said.
The state of Maharashtra is currently facing a shortage of Remdesivir, a critical drug used in the treatment of Covid-19.
Police busts fake RT-PCR report racket
Pune City Police on Saturday arrested two persons for allegedly selling fake Covid RT PCR reports in the name of a private lab at J M Road. During the police investigation, it was revealed that the two accused had issued fake Covid RT-PCR reports to multiple people.
Two people were arrested for issuing fake RT-PCR reports, last night. In view of the delay in reports due to rising COVID caseload, the accused issued forged reports to many people. Further links are being investigated: Deccan Gymkhana Police Station, Pune (17.06)#Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/zm1gbNipHb
— ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2021
A case was registered with Pune’s Deccan police station after a diagnostic centre received information that somebody is issuing fake reports under their lab’s name.
The police have booked the two accused identified as Sagar Hande and Dayanand Kharate under IPC sections 419, 420, 465, 468, 469, 471 and 336, and further investigation is being conducted.
The police informed, “They have sold it to many people till now and police is investigating further links in the case.”
The Maharashtra government in an order issued on April 10 had made it compulsory for anyone delivering essential services to carry a negative RT-PCR report, valid for 15 days from issuance. The sudden high demand in testing and delay to release reports by the labs made it easy for the accused to release and sell fake reports to the needy.
