3 more FIRs lodged into vaccination drives held in April & May; 2 arrested

Incidentally, one person whose name has cropped up in all the camps is Mahendra Pratap Singh (39), a former member of Malad Medical Association. He is in custody of Kandivali police.

The Mumbai Police has registered three more FIRs on Wednesday and Thursday against a group of people for conducting unauthorised vaccination drives in Mumbai. With this, seven FIRs have been lodged in connection to the case.

Overall, 1,721 people have received their first doses in these drives conducted at Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Andheri, Khar and Parel. In all, the police said the group has conducted camps at nine locations in Mumbai. It believes that the vaccines administered were fake.

Incidentally, one person whose name has cropped up in all the camps is Mahendra Pratap Singh (39), a former member of Malad Medical Association. He is in custody of Kandivali police.

On Wednesday, the Bhoiwada police station in Dadar (East) registered the fifth FIR and arrested two persons who acted as a middleman between the victims and Singh. The fifth such drive was conducted by the group in a private education institute, Poddar Center, in Parel on May 28 and 29. On May 28, 103 vaccines were administered, while 104 people were vaccinated the next day. The group charged the institute Rs 2.44 lakh for vaccinating its 207 employees.

An officer from Bhoiwada police station said that the two arrested arrested – Srikant Mane and Seema Ahuja – used to work as travel agents in Cox and Kings. They had left the job and started their own travel agency recently. “While working in Cox and Kings, they were introduced to Singh. When they started their travel agency, they decided to work with Singh and help him in getting clients for the vaccination drives,” the officer added.

Mane and Ahuja have told the police that they, along with Singh and three others, organised a drive at Paanch Pakadi in Thane for a private insurance company on May 26, where a civil contractor – Amit Singh – had taken a dose of Covidshield.

“Amit Singh was carrying out some construction work at the insurance company and was given a dose at the camp. He subsequently went to work at Poddar Center in Parel. There, he told the purchase manager of Poddar Center about vaccination drives being held at corporate houses and got them in touch with Mane,” said an officer. Mane and Ahuja then contacted Singh, following which they organised a camp at Poddar Center.

Senior Inspector Vinod Kamble of Bhoiwada police station said, “On a complaint filed by the purchase manager, we registered an FIR.” He added that Mane and Ahuja were arrested from their respective residences in Kalyan and Thane on Thursday morning.

They were produced in court and remanded in police custody till June 26. In the court, the Bhoiwada said that Mane, Ahuja, Singh and three other wanted accused in the case were also involved in making forged vaccination certificates bearing the names of Nanavati hospital and Lifeline Care hospital, which were handed over to the employees of Poddar Center.

The scam came to light after residents of Hiranandani Heritage in Kandivali (West) lodged a police complaint on June 17 alleging that they have been duped on the pretext of holding a vaccination camp at their society. Subsequently, six persons, including Singh, were arrested.

Later, three more FIRs were registered against the group at Borivali, Versova and Khar police stations for carrying out vaccination drives at Aditya College of Architecture, Matchbox Picture and Tips Music company, respectively.

On Thursday, two more FIRs were registered at Bangur Nagar and Borivali police stations. The biggest drive was held by the group at Shimpoli in Borivali (West) on May 26 and May 27 for staffers and relatives of Mansi Share and Stock Advertisers Private Limited. A total of 514 people were vaccinated for Rs 1,000 each and around 100 received forged certificates.

Apart from Singh, the two arrested by Bhoiwada police have also been named in this FIR lodged by Borivali police.

As per the FIR lodged at Bangur Nagar police station, around 40 people were vaccinated in camps organised in April for employees of Bank of Baroda. Some of the accused named in the first FIR lodged by Kandivali police are involved in this, said police.

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