A sessions court in Dindoshi while rejecting the anticipatory bail application of a doctor accused in the Kandivali society fake vaccination drive, has said in its detailed order, that he played a vital role in the commission of the offence.
The court said there are serious allegations against the applicant Dr. Manish Tripathi that he himself was filling saline in broken sealed vaccine vials and the same was provided at the camp site with the help of a co-accused. It noted that it is alleged that after vaccination, he was carrying all the empty vials.
Additional Sessions Judge LS Chavan said the gravity of the offence being serious and the probe being in progress, his custodial interrogation is imperative to recover the empty vials as well as to investigate what chemicals were used to fill the broken sealed vaccine vials and the financial transactions related to the vaccinations.
It said on perusal of the rival submissions, it appears that he had organized a COVID vaccination drive at Hiranandani Heritage Club House and that the accused persons conspired to administer the vaccine without appointing trained doctors and nurses at the site. Further, the vaccination certificates of different hospitals and different dates were generated.
In the plea through his advocate Adil Khatri, the doctor, who is also the director of an institute, had called himself a scapegoat and said that the police are trying to protect Shivam Hospital, its owners and their son, who are involved. Later, the police had arrested the founder of the hospital and his wife as accused in the case.
Opposing the relief, the police had told the court that the doctor had trained some students of his institute to administer saline injections to each other and roped them into the drives.
On 30 May, 390 residents of Hiranandani Heritage in Kandivali were vaccinated with fake Covishield vaccines. An offence regarding this was registered at the Kandivali police station.
