Rs 40K remdesivir: TOI sting gets 2 held in Hisar

Hisar: This lifesaver during Covid-19 will cost you Rs 40,000 a vial. TOI’s Saturday-night sting operation helped police catch two local black-marketers of antiviral injection Remdesivir.
The accused, Arun Khurana and his nephew, Partha Khurana, both of Multani Chowk in Hisar, are brother and nephew of wholesale chemist association district president Rajiv Khurana. A court on Sunday remanded them in judicial custody. The case was registered at the Urban Estate police station on the complaint of senior drug controller officer (SDCO) Raman Sheoran.
The Khuranas run Holi Medical Hall at Hisar’s Holy Help Hospital . Section 27(b) (sale of drug without licence) and 28 (non-disclosure of maker’s name) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, while Section 51(b) (defying directions) of the Disaster Management Act and sections 3 (control of production, supply, distribution of essential commodities) and 7 (penalties) of the Essential Commodities Act were applied.
SDCO Sheoran and the dental surgeon Dr Tarun Khurana joined the raiding party. TOI journalist Kumar Mukesh and RTI activist Ramesh Verma were made decoy customers with Rs 40,000 cash and sent to the chemist. Partha Khurana, the young man at the shop, called his uncle, Arun Khurana, over to seal the deal and was sent to fetch the injection. A car search on the decoy team’s signal yielded two injections inside.
The decoys posed as pharmacists, and after basic quries about the patient, when Partha called his uncle over, Arun Khurana first said the injection was out of stock for three days and even a Delhi CBI officer in that hospital had not received it. Told 49 shots were available at Sarvodaya Hospital and a few at CMC, Arun said even "DI" (drug inspector, old designation of drug control officer) Suresh Chaudhary had called him, saying, "Tillu (Arun’s pet name), it’s an emergency", but he had to say sorry.
After a bit of forcing, he acted as calling up someone and said a shot was available but it could be a fake Hetero, so we take Mylan for Rs 45,000 (negotiated to Rs 40,000). He said the shot had revived his brother. The drop point was Jahaj Pul and Partha was there in 30 minutes.