The Mumbai police arrested four men on Friday in connection with a fake vaccination camp organised by them at a residential society in western suburbs of the city.
Police filed an FIR against the four — Mahendra Singh (39), Sanjay Gupta (29), Chandan alias Lalit Singh (32) and Nitin Mode (32) — for organising the camp at Hiranandani Heritage in Kandivali on May 30.
Besides Hiranandani, the gang had conducted similar camps at two production houses, one college and some corporate houses in Kandivali, Borivali, Andheri, Parel and Thane, police said.
One person has been detained in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, and would be brought to Mumbai soon. It is suspected that he worked for a doctor who too is believed to be involved in the case, police said.
The four arrested in the Hiranandani Heritage vaccination case, at Kandivali police station in Mumbai on Friday.
The main accused Mahendra Singh is a Class X dropout who used to work with a medical association. He supervised and allotted work to others at the camps. Mr. Gupta, who is into event management, made on ground arrangements while the other two worked with hospitals and stole data from CoWin app to use as ids for those who were administered vaccines.
As many as 390 residents of Hiranandani Heritage paid ₹1,260 each for a shot, and ₹ 4.56 lakh was paid by the society to the organisers. One Rajesh Pandey had approached the society saying he was PRO of Kokilaben Ambani Hospital and wanted to organise a vaccination camp. Mr. Pandey is absconding.
Dilip Sawant, Additional Police Commissioner (North), said. “It is important that the society officials go through the circulars issued by the corporation and check on hospitals authorised to give jabs. There was no competent doctor present during the camp. With the help of BMC, we are investigating the vaccine’s authenticity.”
The accused have been booked under sections of cheating, forgery, adulteration of the IPC and relevant sections of IT Act. “We have also charged them for adulteration as the seals of the vials were broken,” Mr. Sawant said. The accused have been remanded in police custody till June 25.
