PUNE: The Pune rural police on Wednesday night arrested Rajesh Pandey (40) in connection with the fraudulent Covid-19 vaccination camp conducted at an upscale housing society in Kandivli (Mumbai suburb) on May 30.
A Baramati police team, led by inspector Namdev Shinde, took Pandey into custody from a lodge on Bhigwan Road in Baramati. “Pandey worked as a business development officer at a prominent hospital in Mumbai,” Shinde said.
After the scam came to light, the Kandivli police registered a case against five suspects, including Pandey — on the run since then. “Pandey was untraceable as he was constantly changing his locations. On Wednesday, senior inspector Babasaheb Salunkhe of the Kandivli police informed us that Pandey was in or around Pune,” Shinde said.
While checking the suspect’s location, the police tracked him to a lodge along Bhigwan Road. “We laid a trap and took him into custody,” Shinde said.
Shinde said a Kandivli police team reached Baramati on Thursday. “We handed Pandey over to them,” he said.
With Pandey’s arrest, all the five suspects named in the FIR in connection with the fraudulent vaccination camp have been nabbed. The suspects had charged the society members in Kandivli Rs1,260 per dose but it was later revealed that the vaccines were not brought from the authorised sources and the seals of the vials were broken.
“Police probe revealed that the suspects had conducted fraudulent vaccination camps at more than five locations in Mumbai,” Shinde said.
Two more arrests were made in the fake vaccination scam on Thursday even as the 11th FIR was recorded in connection with more than a thousand employees of a gold trading company in Andheri (East) being given the shots. Mumbai police have asked the BMC to seal the Charkop-based Shivam Hospital which is allegedly at the centre of the scam.
(With inputs from Mumbai)
