NAVI MUMBAI: The first instance of a fraudulent Covid-19 vaccination drive has emerged in Navi Mumbai where 352 employees of a fan manufacturing company were given the shots. This is the 12th such case in Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Turbhe MIDC police lodged an FIR against Dr Manish Tripathi and his student Karim Ali—both key accused in most other FIRs—and an unidentified individual. The accused had organized a “vaccination drive” for Atomberg Technologies Pvt Ltd, a fan manufacturer located at Shirawane MIDC, Nerul, in April and charged it Rs 4.3 lakh.
Dr Tripathi is the director of KCEP Group, a training and placement institute that functioned out of Shivam Hospital in Charkop, Kandivli.
Police said the accused claimed they were giving Covishield shots at the drive conducted in Navi Mumbai on April 23. The company’s administration manager, Kalpesh Patil (29), stated in the police complaint that after giving the shots, Dr Tripathi sent them a bill on KCEP Healthcare’s letterhead. The bill mentioned Rs 4.3 lakh for the vaccines and Rs 8,700 as transportation charges. The bill was sent on WhatsApp to the company’s human resource department manager Nipun Agrawal on April 24. The company transferred Rs 4.2 lakh to a bank account number of KCEP provided by Dr Tripathi. The next day, when vaccination certificates of employees were not generated on the CoWin platform, Agarwal questioned Dr Tripathi who allegedly “made excuses” citing technical issues.
On June 9, the vaccination certificates of only two employees, Kiran Jangam and Lakshmikant Jawale, were generated on CoWin. They, though, mentioned Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle as the vaccinator. The vaccination date was given as June 9 instead of April 23. When questioned, Dr Tripathi said everybody was being given similar certificates. As Dr Tripathi said he had procured vaccines from KCEP Healthcare, Agarwal called up their office to inquire about batch numbers of vaccine vials, but he did not receive a satisfactory reply. Suspecting the drive to be fake, the company lodged a complaint at Turbhe MIDC police station. After a preliminary probe, the FIR was registered on July 2.
Senior inspector Rajendra Awadh said, “Dr Tripathi and Ali have been arrested by Kandivli police for a similar offence. Only an antigen test can confirm whether Covishield was administered to even a single employee.” The accused have been booked under relevant IPC sections, the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Information Technology Act.
