The Delhi police arrested three more persons for allegedly manufacturing large quantities of fake Remdesivir injections, an officer said on Monday.
The police said that the arrested have been identified as Ravindra Tyagi, Shrawan Kumar and Rina Kumari.
Tyagi was arrested from Kanpur while Rina and Shrawan were arrested from Delhi. The gang has sold around 5,000 injections in Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, said the police.
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“Ravindra had bought around 600 Remdesivir injections from the main accused Aditya Gautam who was arrested during the raid. Rina sold fake injections in Delhi while Shrawan, a graphic designer, helped the gang in manufacturing of identical wrapper and boxes of original Remdesivir injections. He was also involved in sale of fake vials. He hails from Roorkee,” said the officer.
The arrested persons were used to deal in medical and surgical equipment and were known to each other. They got in touch with Aditya and in order to earn quick money they also involved in sale of fake Remdesivir.
The members took a medical manufacturing unit on lease in Kotdwar district of Uttarakhand.
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“The gang procured large quantity of antibiotic injections from the market that is used in treatment of typhoid and the bottle of injection resembles the shape and size of Remdesivir injections. They used to replace stickers on injection bottles with the sticker of Remdesivir sticker and put in a packaging and with the help of other gang members fake injections were sold to COVID-19 patients,” the officer said.
The officer said that the gang members claimed that the fake Remdesivir injections were not life threatening just its effect on patients in COVID treatment was negligible.
“We have found that these fake injections were mainly stored by people for emergency use. We are trying to trace out more fake injections sold by the gang members, “ said the officer.
On April 30, The Delhi police have arrested five persons from Uttarakhand where they were allegedly manufacturing fake Remdesivir injections.