Finally, some clarity in vaccine scam for those who took it

Dr Shivraj Pataria, who runs Shivam Hospital

The accused in the vaccination scam have told the police that the victims were given saline water and not some chemical. Officials said it is likely that most of those who received shots at Charkop's Shivam Hospital, which is at the centre of the fraud, got genuine vaccines. The number of arrested people in the case has risen to 11, with two more accused being taken into custody.

Mahendra Singh, Nita Pataria three empty vials seized from Charkop-based Shivam Hospital have been sent for forensic analysis

The police said the scam was carried out under an elaborate plan and all the accused had met at a 5-star hotel at Madh Island to chalk out the fake drives. Sources said Shivam Hospital wanted to procure vaccines directly from Serum Institute of India to offer paid vaccination to citizens, but the vaccine-maker wanted a minimum order of Rs 5 crore. It was desperate to raise that amount.

"During the Madh meeting, the gang decided that they would give fake vaccines to people but won't hand over the vaccination certificates immediately. Once Shivam Hospital collected Rs 5 crore and bought vaccines from SII, they thought they would be in a position to issue certificates using their own login," said a source.

On Thursday, the police arrested Rajesh Pandey and Shivam Hospital's administration in charge Rahul Dube. A police source told mid-day, "Dube said that the victims were administered saline water."

The other accused, Rahul Dube, administration in-charge of Shivam Hospital, Chandan Singh and Gudiya Yadav

So far, over 2,686 people have been found to be allegedly given fake shots through drives conducted by the gang at offices, societies and colleges. The accused have also said that no vaccine was brought from Gujarat or Daman and Diu as earlier thought.

However, it is believed that most of those who got vaccines at Shivam Hospital got genuine vaccines. Sources said BMC had supplied 17,100 vaccine doses to the hospital before April 28, though it vaccinated 17,789 citizens. The police suspect about 689 people could have been given saline water at Shivam Hospital.

Earlier, a Special Investigation Team probing into the scam had recovered two empty vials of Covishield and one Covaxin bottle from Dr Pataria's cabin at Shivam Hospital. The bottles have been sent for forensic analysis to ascertain their contents. The Pataria couple too has confessed to giving saline water under the pretext of Covid-19 shots.

No. of FIRs rises to 11

Meanwhile, two more FIRs have been registered in the scam, taking the total number of cases to 11. So far, 13 people have been arrested in the case.

Sanjay Gupta, Karim Ali, Sanjay Gupta

On Thursday, the MIDC police registered a case against Dr Manish Tripathi, Dr Shivraj Pataria and his wife Nita, Arvind Jadhav, Pavan Singh, Dr Anurag, Mohamed Karim Ali, Neha Sharma, Roshni Patel and others. It came on a complaint by Inter Gold (India) Private Limited. It said 1,055 doses of Covishield and Covaxin were given by Pawan Singh between April and May and only 48 got vaccination certificates.

"No permission was taken from the BMC for the drive at Inter Gold (India) office premises," said DCP Maheshwar Reddy of Zone 10. A day earlier, the Amboli police had registered a case regarding vaccination of 220 people at Kwan Talent Company in Andheri West. For this drive, Dr Rajesh Pandey had sent an invoice of R2.9 lakh to the company.

11
No. of FIRs registered in the scam so far