Nagpur: A doctor and three ward boys from different hospitals were arrested by city police crime branch after laying a trap and seizing 15 Remdesivir injections from them which were being taken from the stocks for selling at high price to needy patients.
The police action closely followed a similar action in Mumbai. Amid reports of Remdesivir blackmarketing, city police chief Amitesh Kumar was asked by the guardian minister Nitin Raut to crack down on the malpractice.
Following a tip-off, squad of Zonal DCP Neelotpal laid a trap and one Dr Lokesh Shahu and his accomplice Shubham Mohudure were picked up from Dragon Palace, Kamptee, area. Dr Shahu is learnt to be associated with a Kamptee-based hospital. Sources stated Shahu, who was accepting online payment, had been selling Remdesivir for Rs 16,000 each. Two Remdesivir injections were recovered from them.
Mohudure worked as a ward boy at a multispecialty hospital near Deo Nagar square. It is learnt Mohudure had received the vials from his colleague at the same hospital, Kunal Kohde, who was picked up too. Police seven vials of Remdesivir from him.
In another subsequent raid at a Wanadongri-based hospital following interrogation of Kohde, police picked up ward boy Sumeet Bangde from whom six Remdesivir vials were recovered.
An offence was registered at Old Kamptee police station. “We are trying to nab blackmarketers and have activated our intelligence units across the city,” said CP Kumar.