Mumbai: Five held for selling Remdesivir at Rs 18,000 per vial, 26 vials seized

Five people, including a woman, who were black marketing and hoarding Remdesivir injection, were arrested by Mumbai Police's Crime Branch Unit 12 on April 23. The five accused were selling Remdesivir injections at inflated prices, at least double to triple of the capped prices, at ₹18,000 per vial. Police have seized 26 such vials from the accused people valued at ₹1.24 lakh and booked them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

According to police officials, they had received a tip-off that few people were selling Remdesivir injections at ₹18,000 per vial for the treatment of COVID-19, at a time when there is a shortage in supply of the injections. Acting on this information, a team of police and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials reached the spot outside Vibgyor High School on Link Road in Goregaon (W) and arrested two people-- Shubham Bakshi and Sneha Shah, which led to the arrest of Rohit Kamble, Atharva Chintamani and Dipak Khadka, who were sitting in a hotel at Saki Naka in Andheri (E).

During their interrogation, police learnt that the accused sold Remdesivir injection vials of 100mg to people at inflated prices, without any bills, doctor's prescription, COVID reports, violating the government rules. Subsequently, a search resulted in seizure of 26 vials of Remdesivir injection, valued at ₹1,24,800 from the accused. Police are now trying to ascertain the source from where the accused procured the Remdesivir vials.

and planned to send an informer as a decoy to the man selling the injections. At around 7.30pm, a man and one of his accomplices approached the decoy customer with three vials of Remdesivir injections valued at Rs 20,000 each, collectively worth Rs 60,000.