After residents of a housing society in Mumbai’s Kandivali area claimed that they were the victims of an elaborate “vaccination scam”, the Mumbai Police on Friday lodged an FIR in the matter. Four persons have been arrested so far. Interestingly, the day also saw Ramesh Taurani of Tips Industries Ltd and Sanjay Routre of Matchbox Pictures suspecting that they have been duped in a fake Covid-19 vaccination scam in Mumbai.
Taurani, who heads Tips Industries Limited, had organised a camp for 365 employees on 30 May and 3 June. But they are yet to receive a vaccination certificate.
“We are still waiting for the certificates and when my office people contacted him (Sanjay Gupta from SP Events), he said it will come by this Saturday (12 June). We got 356 people vaccinated and paid Rs 1,200 per dose plus GST. But more than the money, now we are worried about what was given to us. Is it genuine Covishield or any saline water?” he said. “We were told that we would get the vaccination certificate from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (in Mumbai).”
Matchbox Pictures too has filed a complaint against the alleged fraudulent vaccination of their staff. A written complaint at Mumbai’s Versova Police Station has been filed. No case has been registered yet.
On the issue of the fake vaccine camp case in a housing society in Kandivali suburb, Mumbai Police said on Friday, “BMC’s permission was not taken for this vaccine camp. No doctor was present in that vaccination camp, not even for emergencies. FIR has been registered on the complaint of the society. Four people have been arrested in this. Whoever brought the vaccine has also been arrested. So far it has also been learnt that there is no record of this vaccine. These people had set up vaccination camps at 9 similar places.”
“They have a big racket of setting up similar camps. There is a big man in this who is the head of it; he is working in the medical field for 17 years. These people have also tampered with the mail and data of many hospitals and through that, these people were given the certificate of vaccine of different hospitals. The investigation is still going on and more people may be arrested. People were given a certificate by feeding the data incorrectly. The vaccine given has not been taken from any official source. Now it is being investigated where exactly that vaccine has come from», said Mumbai Police Additional Commissioner Dilip Sawant. The police are also investigating the validity of vaccines given to people. A report from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is awaited.
There was no seal in the vaccine given, this very big thing has come to the fore in the investigation. A case has been registered against all of them under Sections 270, 279, 276,419,420,465,467,468,471,43,60(C).
