Jubilee Post News & Views
Mohan Sinha
On March 29, 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned about counterfeit and stolen COVID-19 vaccines being sold on the dark web, along with fake vaccination certificates and fake negative tests. These were being aimed at those travelling abroad.
However, residents of Hiranandani Heritage Society, in Kandivali, Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, an upscale housing society in Mumbai were understandably unaware of this fact as were most Indians.
But where there is money to be made in a scam can the crooked Indian be left behind? The people of this upmarket housing society, obviously not wanting to stand in a queue considering the chances of infection, contacted one Rajesh Pandey, a marketing manager at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, whose services have now been terminated by the hospital. The enterprising Pandey, looking to make a crooked buck, agreed to the request of the residents but decided to conduct the vaccination drive himself.
He contacted one Mahendra Singh, 39, associated with the Malad Medical Association, and both of them along with five others contacted the housing society. The price was fixed at ₹1260 per dose plus GST. Soon after, the team came over to the Hiranandani Heritage Society in June and the residents duly queued up to get vaccinated. They rolled up their sleeves or pulled down their shirts as the situation demanded, stuck out their arms and were duly poked with their ‘Covishield’ vaccine doses.
Happy in the belief that they had received the first dose they forked out the ₹1260 plus and the ‘health’ personnel packed up their paraphernalia and left. As is now public knowledge, there are side effects to the vaccine such as headaches, body aches, fever etc. Strangely enough, none of these residents felt anything but the prick of the needle. None of them experienced any side effects whatsoever and that got them wondering.
As the queries began circulating about the lack of side effects, the worries began to pile up. Why weren’t they suffering any headaches or body aches? They asked around and then the story exploded in their faces. One of the residents of Hiranandani quickly filed a police complaint. As police began investigations, it emerged that the housing society wasn’t the only one that had been duped with fake vaccines.
More and more housing societies, as well as companies, came forward with stories of being vaccinated by the same group of people. These included employees at Tips Industries and Matchbox Pictures where 356 employees were vaccinated on May 29 and June 3.
It finally emerged that nearly 2,000 people had been inoculated with fake COVID vaccine doses in Mumbai in eight such vaccination camps in some housing societies and companies by the devious bunch. Mumbai Police, acting swiftly on complaints launched investigations and began rounding up people, including Pandey and Singh. To date, ten people have been arrested while a couple of others are absconding.
Residents now believe they received either glucose, saline or just plain water, or in some cases even expired doses of the vaccine in the name of Covishield’ originally manufactured under licence from AstraZeneca by the Serum Institute of India which has its manufacturing plant in Pune. These vials had been sourced from a hospital but how the contents were replaced in some cases is a mystery. Police, however, doubt the veracity of the claims of the arrested persons that the vaccines were sourced from any authorised hospital. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has also launched parallel investigations into the issue.
The enterprising crooks even stole the hospital’s ID, logged on to the CoWin website and issued fake vaccination certificates to the residents from hospitals such as Lifeline Hospital and Nanavati Hospital. Close to Rs 10 lakh in cash has been frozen from the account of one of the accused that he had received for the fake vaccination drive.
What is surprising is that none of the residents noticed or if they did, failed to question the organisers as to why there were no qualified doctors or any first aid facilities available at these sites since that is a mandatory requirement, in case any of the persons suffer from any sudden aside effects after the vaccine during the mandatory 15-30 minutes waiting period.
As the police began a manhunt, Singh was arrested. One Karim Akbar Ali (21), who allegedly procured the vaccine was nabbed from a police station in Madhya Pradesh; Sanjay Gupta of SP events, who helped organise the camp on the ground, along with Chandan Singh and Nitin Vasant Monde, who made the certificates on CoWin by stealing the hospital’s ID.
Meanwhile, the WHO had stated earlier in March on its website that several ministries of health and regulatory agencies around the world had received suspicious offers to supply vaccines, along with reports of “criminal groups” reusing empty vaccine vials.
“We urge the secure disposal or destruction of used and empty vaccine vials to prevent them from being reused by criminal groups,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.
Doses of AstraZeneca, Sputnik, Sinipharm and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were being offered for prices between US$500 and $750 on the dark web.
“We urge all people not to buy vaccines outside government-run vaccination programmes,” said Ghebreyesus. “Any vaccine outside these programmes may be substandard or falsified, with the potential to cause serious harm.”
