MUMBAI: 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, allegedly at the centre of the scam.
Rajesh Pandey, a former employee of Kokilaben Ambani Hospital, was tracked down to Baramati. Pandey is accused in five of the 11 FIRs. He would allegedly falsely say he was organising vaccination drives through the Ambani hospital. The management terminated his service after the scam came to light and clarified he was never involved in their vaccination programme. “Pandey kept changing locations after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected on June 22. He was in Pune before he moved to Baramati,” said an officer. A Shivam Hospital administrator, Rahul Dube, was the second to be arrested on Thursday. Dube was allegedly involved in refilling empty vials with saline water and storing them in the hospital fridge, officials said.
Police said Neeta Pataria, who ran Shivam Hospital, played a key role. “Meetings were held between Neeta, another key accused, Dr Manish Tripathi, and the mastermind, Mahendra Singh, at a resort in Malad where they discussed which establishments to target for carrying out bogus camps,” said an IPS officer.
Police have also learnt that nine “certificates” were issued on Shivam Hospital’s letterhead to vaccine beneficiaries in early April as valid certificates would not get generated via the CoWin platform. The hospital had permission to function as a private Covid vaccination centre (PCVC) at that time.
“We have found a diary page which has names of people whose certificates did not get generated via CoWin even back then. We will attempt to reach out to all these people,” said an officer.
A Shivam Hospital director has been booked in the latest FIR lodged at MIDC police station on Thursday where Dr Tripathi and his students are co-accused. The complaint was filed by Inter Gold (India) Pvt Ltd, which is located in Andheri (East). On four different dates in April and May, 1,055 employees of the company were given shots by the accused and Rs 2.6 lakh was charged as advance, the balance was pending. In terms of the number of people given fake doses, this is the largest camp unearthed so far. More than a thousand employees did not receive vaccine certificates even a month and a half after being given the shots. The BMC was not informed about this camp which is a requirement as per guidelines.
