Three men who were recently arrested for impersonating NCP leader Sharad Pawar and calling up people in his name had also procured 50 vials of Remdesivir medicine during the peak of the Covid-19 second wave, the investigation has revealed. The accused then sold the injections in black market for Rs 25,000 per vial when the drug was in short supply, the police said.
Vikas Gurav, 51, a resident of Pune, has been impersonating Pawar for over 20 years. According to the police, he contacted doctors and hospitals in and around Pune and asked them to provide Remdesivir. He made the person on the other end believe it was Pawar himself on the phone. Last year, an audio clip went viral in which 'Pawar' was heard calling up a doctor and demanding Remdesivir for his party workers. A probe revealed the caller was Gurav. The probe further revealed that Gurav managed to con around eight doctors.
Gurav and his accomplices Kiran Kakade, 26, and Dheeraj Pathare, 38, ran out of luck when they contacted a secretary in the Revenue Department demanding the transfer of a tahasildar on August 11. The accused used a spoofing app to portray the number of Pawar's Mumbai residence Silver Oak. The game was up when the official called up Pawar’s residence, only to find out that Pawar was in New Delhi and that no such call was made by him. A complaint of impersonation and cheating was registered at the Gamdevi Police Station.
