The Mumbai police on Friday arrested five persons for allegedly defrauding a city housing society and fleecing money from its residents while organising a Covid-19 vaccination camp on its premises on May 30.
Three days after the residents of Hiranandani Heritage Society alleged a fraud in the vaccination camp held by a private agency in their housing society, the police arrested five persons –identified as Mahendra Kuldeep Singh (39), Sanjay Gupta (25), Chandan Singh (32), Karim Akber Ali (21) and Nitin More (32) in connection with the alleged fraud.
Confirming the arrests, Additional Police Commissioner (Mumbai North) Dilip Sawant said that the organisers had not taken any permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to hold a private vaccination camp at the Hiranandani Heritage Society at Kandivali (west) in north Mumbai on May 30.
The arrests came 72 hours after the office bearers of Hiranandani Heritage Residents’ Welfare Association (HHRWA) lodged a complaint with them, ther Kandivli police arrested the five persons behind the alleged fraud..
The HHRWA office bearers had earlier told the police that the three alleged fraudsters collected Rs 4.92 lakh from 390 residents, housekeeping staff, security guards, drivers or domestic helpers on May 30 for conducting a vaccination camp.
The camp was conducted by three facilitators, including Rajesh Pandey and Sanjay Gupta, who claimed to represent leading private hospitals like the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (KDAH) and the Nanavati Hospital. They agreed to provide 400 vaccine doses for around `1,260 each, for which the society paid around `4.92 lakh. However the vaccination facilitator did not provide receipts for the money taken.
On their part, the KDAH and the Nanavati Hospital had distanced themselves from the questionable vaccination camp by saying that they had nothing to do with the vaccination camp conducted at Hiranandani Heritage Society. They said that they were not approached by the housing society.
The residents got suspicious after as none of the beneficiaries were given the vaccination certificates. They also noticed that the vials used for vaccination camp bore 'Not For Sale' stamp. The society members approached one of the facilitators Sanjay Gupta for vaccination certificates. However, Gupta said that the certificates would be given after 3-4 days.
Later on the residents found out after June 8 that the certificates were being generated from different hospitals in the city, without the date of vaccination i.e., May 30.
Before long, some of the aggrieved residents checked their status on CoWin only to learn that they were yet to get their first vaccine dose, a development that prompted the HHRWA to lodge a complaint with the police.