Mumbai fake vaccination scam: Day after court rejects pre-arrest bail, doctor surrenders before cops

MUMBAI: A doctor wanted in connection with a "bogus" vaccination drive case registered at the Kandivali police station in Mumbai surrendered before the police on Tuesday, a day after a sessions court rejected his anticipatory bail application, an official said.

DCP (Zone-XI) Vishal Thakur said that Dr Manish Tripathi was arrested after his role was established in the crime but refused to elaborate. Tripathi is one of the six accused whose name had cropped up in the "bogus" vaccination drive conducted at a housing society in suburban Kandivali last month.

Police had already arrested six persons in connection with the case. The official said Dr Tripathi reached the Kandivali police station in the afternoon and surrendered himself. "A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the case now," he said.

In his pre-arrest bail application filed before the sessions court in Dindoshi on June 22, Dr Tripathi had stated the main accused in the case is a private hospital but the Mumbai Police are trying to protect its owners who are "powerful and politically well-connected".

In a complaint submitted to the police, Hiranandani Heritage Residents Welfare Association (HHRWA) had claimed that its members were cheated during a vaccination camp organised on its campus by some persons who claimed to represent a private hospital.

The residents had claimed that they couldn't find their details on the CO-WIN app and were issued certificates in the name of three different hospitals. They had also expressed fear that the vaccine administered to them could be spurious.

The FIR was registered at the Kandivali police station on June 17 for conducting an unauthorised vaccination drive for 390 people on May 30. Subsequently, similar FIRs were registered in Versova, Khar, Borivali, Bhoiwada and other areas of Mumbai.

Police suspect some of the accused were common in these incidents.