According to BMC's preliminary investigation, the entire vaccination drive held at the society was bogus and vaccines administered were acquired illegally by the accused. (File) IN ORDER to verify if the jabs administered at Hiranandani Heritage housing society in Kandivali (West) were genuine, the BMC has written to the Serum Institute of India (SII) seeking details of the batch number of the Covishield vials used in the immunisation camp held on May 30.
On Thursday and Friday, four persons were arrested after it came to light that they had vaccinated 390 people at the camp organised illegally at the society premises and taken Rs 4.6 lakh for the purpose.
According to BMC’s preliminary investigation, the entire vaccination drive held at the society was bogus and vaccines administered were acquired illegally by the accused.
The matter had come to light on June 12 when the housing society members did not get their CoWin-generated certificates after being given shots. Those who did get, their certificates had wrong details.
Also, none suffered any side effects post vaccination.
The society approached the police after the hospitals – whose names were mentioned in the CoWin-generated certificates – denied being a part of the camp.
On June 16, Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani ordered an inquiry under Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC-VII) Vishwas Shankarwar to find out the facts regarding the camp.
On Friday, a preliminary report was submitted to Kakani. Following this, the BMC on Saturday wrote to the SII.
“We have sent an email to SII mentioning the batch numbers of the vaccine vials to find out which hospital supplied the same. If it gives us the hospital’s name, we will check if these vials were supplied to Hiranandani Heritage by that particular hospital. However, if the hospital denies, we will approach the police,” said Kakani.
“The aspect of black marketing will also be checked, as there is a possibility that these vaccines were diverted from vaccine centres,” Kakani added.
The BMC probe has found that the jabs administered were not issued by BMC vaccine centres.
According to the BMC report, of the 390 residents vaccinated, only 120 have received their CoWin-generated certificates. Also, the society had violated BMC’s May 7 order, as per which, before conducting any vaccination drive, housing societies should inform the local ward office and medical officer of BMC’s health department for conducting an inspection.
The society was further supposed to have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the hospital which was carrying out the drive.
“The society had not signed any MoU. It also not followed BMC’s May 7 order. We will probe if any managing committee member of the society was involved in this,” said Shankarwar.
“We will continue our parallel investigation and share details with the police,” said Kakani.
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