Mumbai: A day after the sessions court had rejected Dr Manish Tripathi's anticipatory bail application, he surrendered before Kandivali Police on Tuesday in connection to the unauthorised 'fake' vaccination drive conducted in at least nine places and seven First Information Report's (FIR) have been registered in the case, all in which Tripathi has been shown as an accused. He was arrested by Kandivali Police soon after, and further probe is underway. Tripathi's arrest is the 11th arrest in the 'fake' vaccination drive.
According to police, one of the main accused, Dr. Manish Tripathi, who runs a coaching institute, KPEC, for nursing and other students in the premises of Charkop-based Shivam Hospital, had allegedly procured the vials in all these nine unauthorised vaccination drives. Moreover, Tripathi had also lured some of his students with extra marks in practicals to carry out the vaccination and administer the vaccines. His student--Qareem Akbar Ali, 21, who too has been arrested and named as an accused in all cases, had told police that the victims were given saline water which was refilled in the used vials.
Two other students of Tripathi's--Roshni Patel and Abhijeet Benwasi, have been named as accused in several cases. Moreover, Tripathi had arranged a data entry job for another arrested accused, Gudiya Yadav, at Nesco vaccination centre in Goregaon, so as to steal the CoWin credentials to generate fake certificates, nine of which had been seized by police.
Till now, Kandivali Police have arrested the mastermind Mahendra Singh, Sanjay Gupta, Chandan alias Lalit Singh, Nitin Mode, Qareem Akbar Ali, Gudiya Yadav, Shivam Hospital's Shivraj Pataria and his wife Nita Pataria along with Dr. Manish Tripathi. Meanwhile, Bhoiwada Police have arrested travel agents Shrikant Mane and Seema Ahuja, who became a part of this 'fake' vaccination drive due to joblessness.
