Seven held for selling Remdesivir injections at higher cost

Seven persons have been arrested here for allegedly selling Remdesivir injections being used in treatment of COVID-19 at a higher price, a police official said on Sunday.

The accused were selling a vial of the injection for ₹ 30,000, much higher than the MRP of ₹ 5,400, he said.

Officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and crime branch also recovered stock of Remdesivir injection after raiding two places in the city on Saturday, he said.

“On a tip-off, an FDA official contacted a man for buying the injection over phone on Saturday. A decoy customer was sent at a meeting point in suburban Mulund to collect the vial. Two persons who had come to deliver the injection were picked up from the spot,” the crime branch official said.

They are identified as Vikas Dubey and Rahul Gada.

On the basis of disclosure made by them, police arrested five men from Delfa Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturing unit based in suburban Ghatkopar, he said.

They are identified as Bhavesh Shah, Ashish Kanojiya, Ritesh Thombre, Gurvinder Singh and Sudhir Pujari, the official said.

All the accused have been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under provisions of the FDA Act, he added.