Delhi’s fake remdesivir injection racket: Two more arrested in Uttarakhand

Two more persons have been arrested in connection with the fake remdesivir injection scam. The racket, whose mastermind is a BPharma degree holder, had its roots in Delhi and was spread to three more states, the police said on Friday.

A day ago, the police busted an industrial manufacturing unit in Uttarakhand’s Kotdwar where fake remdesivir injections were being manufactured, and arrested five people. Seven people have already been arrested from Delhi and Ghaziabad in connection with the racket, taking the total number of arrests to 14.

The police said they had also unearthed a packaging unit at Haridwar, also in Uttarakhand, where the fake injections were packed and supplied to Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. Two persons were arrested following this raid, senior police officers said.

“The racketeers were selling a fake remdesivir injection for anything between ₹25,000 and ₹40,000. They have already sold around 2,000 such injections in Delhi and other states,” said one of the officers, requesting anonymity.

The police have not shared the names of the seven arrested persons or if the mastermind is among them.

According to the officer cited above, the arrests came following the seizure of 93 remdesivir injections from seven men who were arrested from Delhi and Ghaziabad following three separate raids between April 21 and 26. Some of the seized injections appeared to be fake as the information on their packing boxes was riddled with mistakes.

One of the men arrested then revealed that the supply of remdesivir injections for black marketing was being done from Punjab and Haryana. His interrogation led to the arrest of six more persons who, in turn, led the police to the manufacturing unit in Kotdwar.

Late Thursday night, Delhi Police commissioner SN Shrivastava tweeted, “Delhi Police working on useful information arrested 5 culprits in a prolonged investigation & unearthed a ‘pharmaceutical’ unit at Kothdwar, Uttarakhand manufacturing large quantities of fake Remdevisir injections (COVIPRI) sold at price over Rs. 25000/-.”

He said that apart from 196 fake injections, the police also seized packing machines and 3,000 empty vials in which the fake medicines were intended to be packed. He said that five suspects were arrested following a “prolonged” investigation.