"The state government has instructed police to act tough against people who are black-marketing Covid-19 medicines," said a government spokesman.

 

Police commissioner Asim Arun said that no illegal activity would be tolerated in this time of crisis and would invite strictest punishment.

 

"It is a crime against humanity and we will invoke NSA against the three persons arrested with Remdesivir injections on Thursday," he said.

 

He further said that the state government was fully committed to facilitating easy availability of vials and other Covid-related medicines to its people.

 

Meanwhile, the STF sources said that they have been trying to crack the nexus to curb black- marketing of Covid vials. There were inputs that of the 265 Remdesivir injection vials were supposed to be supplied to local medicine dealers, besides Haryana resident Sachin Kumar.

 

"We are zeroing in on the local pharma distributors, and expecting an early breakthrough. It also came to light that the injections were sent to Kanpur resident Mohan Soni by one Apoorva Mukherjee of West Bengal, who is associated with a pharma company. As Mohan was supposed to take back his Rs one lakh from Apoorva, the latter instead had sent him vials against the cash," senior police official informed.

 

It may be recalled that the Kanpur unit of Special Task Force (STF) had, on Thursday, arrested three people with 265 Remdesivir injections meant for sale in black market.

 

Ramdesivir is a key medicine, used in the treatment of coronavirus. Taking advantage of the shortage, some people have been selling the vials at high prices.

 

DCP South Raveena Tyagi had stated that one Prashant Shukla of Naubasta's Pashupati Nagar and Baktauri Purwa resident Mohan Soni were earlier arrested.