The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has busted a manufacturing unit of fake Remdesivir in Uttarakhand and arrested five people.
The police said a total of 198 vials of fake Remdesivir, one packing machine, 3,000 empty vials to be used in packing of Remdesivir and other packing materials of Azithromycin were recovered from the possession of the accused.
The accused have been identified as Mohammad Shoiab Khan (28), Mohan Kumar Jha (40), Manish Goyal (35), Pushkar Chanderkant Pakhale (32), Sadhna Sharma (40), Vatan Kumar Saini (32) and Aditya Gautam (33).
According to Monika Bhardwaj, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime Branch, after receiving specific inputs, a trap was laid on April 23 near MB Road, Sangam Vihar.
“Two accused Khan and Jha were apprehended who were indulged in black marketing of fake Remdesivir injections. Ten fake injections were recovered from their possession. They disclosed that they were selling the fake injection at a higher price as its demand was shooting up,” he said.
“On their instance, police conducted raids on Sunday at Yamuna Vihar and apprehended Goyal and Pakhale. Twelve fake injections were recovered from their possession. On Monday, Sadhna Sharma was also apprehended and 160 vials of fake Remdesivir injections (COVIPRI) were recovered from her possession,” he added.
“Later, Saini was nabbed from Haridwar. On his instance, Gautam, working in the field of pharmacy, was arrested from Roorkee, who purchased around 2,000 anti-biotic injection vials, identical packing of Remdesivir, and changed their labels at his factory in Kotdwar, with COVIPRI to sell them as Remdesivir,” said the DCP.
“The computer on which he prepared the labels and 16 more fake Remdesivir injection vials have also been recovered. As the demand of the injection increased due to the increasing numbers of Covid cases, the accused started preparing fake Remdesivir with anti-biotic injection vials by changing their labels with COVIPRI to sell them as Remdesivir,” said the DCP.