MUMBAI: Shivam Hospital in Charkop, which has been at the centre of the fake vaccine scam, was sealed by the BMC on Friday following a Mumbai police request. Its nursing home licence has been cancelled too, which means it cannot operate any longer. Meanwhile, a 20-year-old driver, Anurag Tripathi, was arrested on Friday for his alleged involvement in fake vaccine drives. Police have made 14 arrests in the case so far.
“We have cancelled Shivam Hospital’s registration licence under Bombay Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1949. We have also sealed the building so that no illegal activity is carried out there. We have taken action as per the suggestion of the police that Shivam Hospital was the hub of fake vaccination drives,” said Sanjay Kurhade, assistant municipal commissioner, R-South Ward.
Anurag worked as a driver for the family of Dr Manish Tripathi, a key accused in the scam. He has been arrested by Samta Nagar police in connection with an “inoculation camp” for 618 employees of four different companies in Kandivli (East) in April. Police said he was involved in entering Aadhar data of beneficiaries into a computer. Anurag has also been booked in a separate FIR lodged by MIDC police where over a thousand employees of a gold trading company were given shots.
“Anurag belongs to the same hometown as Manish. A BSc dropout, he was brought to Mumbai to work as a driver for Manish’s ailing father,” said an acquaintance.
In the wake of the scam where used vials were refilled with saline water, the police have made a few suggestions to the BMC.
“A mechanism needs to be devised to monitor the disposal of used vials. It shouldn’t be left entirely to the private Covid vaccination centre (PCVC),” said a police officer. “There also needs to be a system to keep the records of who is the end user of every dose,” he added.
Civic officials said as per the revised guidelines, all PCVCs have been asked to remove stickers mentioning batch numbers from vaccine vials after use. “PCVCs can either destroy the stickers or remove and preserve the stickers if they want to keep track of the batch numbers,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health). Vials should be disposed without stickers to prevent reuse, said officials.
Meanwhile, Borivli police on Friday took custody of five of the accused—Mahendra Singh (alleged mastermind), Sanjay Gupta and Kareem Ali in connection with a fake vaccine camp at Aditya College in Borivali, and Nitin Mode and Chandan Singh in the Mansi Stocks and Shares Advisory case.
