An employee each of a private and a railway hospital were arrested here for allegedly selling Remdesivir injection -- critical in battling Covid-19 -- at an exorbitant price, police said on Monday.
Based on a tip, a decoy customer was sent to Raipur's DD Nagar police station limits and Kamlesh Sahu (24) was caught while attempting to sell a vial of Remdesivir for Rs 14,000.
Police said that Sahu joined the Railway Hospital in Khamtarai area as a nursing staff only four days ago.
During interrogation, he named his accomplice David Manhare (26), a member of the nursing staff at the Shri Dani Care MultiSpeciality Hospital in Raipur.
Manhare too was arrested. He told police that he asked for two doses of Remdesivir injection from a corona patient’s family and used only one for the patient. He kept the second for black marketing.
Police recovered two vials each from the accused and Rs 94,500 in cash. Both said they had sold around a dozen doses at prices ranging from Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 to the desperately needy.
Amid shortage of the anti-viral drug, cases of black marketing have been reported. Police in Raipur had arrested two persons in a similar case a few days ago.