Raids were conducted and Sabharwal was arrested from Agartala while the other accused were arrested from Delhi. (Representational image)Five persons, including two Union Health ministry staffers, have been arrested by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of getting employment opportunities for transportation of Covid vaccines to different states. Police said the accused cheated more than six people of Rs 15 crore.
Hermenn Sabharwal (43), Govind Tulsian (52), Diprana Tiwari (32), Trilok Singh (53) and Mrityunjoy Roy (44) have been arrested. Police said Singh is employed as a multi-tasking staff at the Health ministry while Tiwari is also an MTS, on a contract basis. Roy was on deputation with the Minister of Home Affairs from SSB and was a reception officer in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at Nirman Bhawan.
The matter came to light after several complaints surfaced where the victims alleged that they had been duped of Rs 15 crore on the pretext of getting them work orders for transportation of Covid vaccines.
“All the complainants claimed that they were made to sit inside the conference room of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to execute the work order for transportation of Covid vaccines. They later found they were cheated,” said an officer.
Ravindra Singh Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), said the investigation revealed that the accused contacted all the complainants in May last year and invited them to the Health Ministry office to gain their trust.
“The accused also impersonated officers of the ministry and obtained signatures of the complainants on forged work orders. Using the forged work orders, they obtained Rs 15 crore from the complainants,” he said.
Raids were conducted and Sabharwal was arrested from Agartala while the other accused were arrested from Delhi. Sabharwal has an MBA degree and was running an HR company in which, he suffered losses, said the police.