The Panvel City police arrested three for allegedly duping people on the pretext of providing Remdesivir injection.
The accused used to take money from the COVID-19 patients, however, after taking money, they used to inform that they were caught by the police and both money and injection seized.
A case of cheating against them was registered on Tuesday after they cheated a buyer whose family member was admitted in Pune and required four doses of Remdesivir.
The arrested persons were identified as Sourabh Bonkar, 25, a resident of Mangaon in Raigad, Aniket Tandel, 24, a resident of Sukarpur in Panvel and Akash Mhatre, 42, a resident of Mangoan in Raigad. Police said that they are friends.
According to police, Akash and Saurabh demanded Rs 88,000 for four doses of Remdesivir injection from the Pune man and asked him to call Tandel to get the injection.
When the complainant called Tandel for injection, Tandel asked to come to Panvel station at 12.30 pm on Tuesday. Tandel took the money and asked him to collect the injection from Bamandongri station in Ulwe. However, when the complainant went to collect the same at Bamandongri station, Tandel was not there. When he called Tandel, he said that police caught him and seized both money and the injection. Tandel also warned him to not call and come to collect money as he will also be arrested.
After losing money, the Pune man lodged an FIR at Panvel city police station. “We laid a trap by making a similar demand of injection and when Tandel was taking money, we caught him red-handed,” said a senior police official. He added that they seized Rs 52,000 and three mobile phones from them. A case was registered against them under sections 320 and 34 of IPC.
