NAVI MUMBAI: The APMC police have arrested three persons for selling fake ‘Final Certificate for Covid-19 Vaccination’ to those unwilling to take the jabs for Rs 3,000 each, and misusing the said certificate for intra-nation travel.
Acting on a complaint by NMMC’s medical officer Dr Kailas Gaikwad, the APMC police have booked the three accused under relevant sections of the IPC for cheating and forgery, and under the Epidemic Diseases Act.
“The illegal beneficiaries might be misusing the certificate for obtaining universal pass to travel by trains and buses and for visiting malls and movie theatres where it is mandatory to produce the final covid-19 vaccination certificate for entry,” said Dr Gaikwad.
The accused have been identified as Nitin Shinde (34), owner of a Xerox centre in Vashi sector 19D, and two NNMT bus conductors identified as Viraj Vakshe (29) and Amol Zende (35). Zende had been temporarily deputed as data entry operator at NMMC’s Urban Health Primary Centre (UHPC) at Turbhe for the past four months. Shinde and Vakshe connived with Zende to provide fake covishield certificate by making false entry into the vaccination register at the UHPC.
They issued fake final vaccination certificate by using NMMC’s official User ID and password for logging into the ‘Cowin.Gov.in’ website. Acting on a tip off, , the APMC police sent a decoy to Shinde and sought a fake Covishield final vaccination certificate. Shinde, in turn, approached NMMT bus conductor Vaskhe, who then got in touch with Zende at Turbhe UHPC and obtained the fake certificate from him.
After PSI Sharad Awhad busted the racket, he summoned Dr Gaikwad for verification of the record maintained for vaccination doses administered at Turbhe UHPC. It was found that the certificate issued to the decoy mentioned same batch number for both the covishield vaccine doses, thus revealing the forgery.
The three accused have been remanded to police custody till Sunday, informed the police.
