Police begins probe in Mumbai housing society vaccination fraud

Mumbai: Mumbai Police launched an investigation after a housing society in suburban Kandivali suspected ”fraud” by some persons who had organised a COVID-19 vaccination camp for its members by claiming to represent a private hospital and also expressed apprehensions that the vaccine that was administered could be spurious.

A senior officer said on Wednesday no FIR has been registered so far but the police will probe the case from different angles.

“We have not registered an FIR in this case and not arrested anybody. We have also not detained anybody. We are just investigating,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 11, Vishal Thakur said.

In a complaint submitted to the police, the Hiranandani Heritage Residents Welfare Association (HHRWA) had said that a vaccination camp was arranged by the residential complex on May 30. But later it found that the Co-WIN portal did not have any record of the people who participated and they received certificates in the name of different hospitals.

”If the vaccine is found to be spurious, the people who got vaccinated will have a medical emergency to deal with. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate the whole episode so that such fraudulent activities are not repeated at other places,” the complaint said.

The HHRWA had organized the camp through a person who claimed to be a sales representative of a reputed private hospital in suburban Andheri. As many as 390 members received the jabs at the camp at Rs 1,260 per person, it had said in the complaint which stated that some unscrupulous elements have taken the society for a ride.

They were shocked to receive vaccination certificates in the name of Nanavati Hospital, Lifeline Hospital and NESCO Covid Camp, among others, it said.

Nanavati Hospital had said in a statement that it had not conducted any such vaccination camp.

”We have informed the authorities and are lodging a formal complaint,” said its spokesperson on Tuesday. The HHRWA also said that none of the people who got vaccinated had the usual after-effects like fever or body ache.

According to the complaint, one Sanjay Gupta was the coordinator for the camp, but he did not give receipts for the payment for vaccines. He had asked the association to make payment to one Mahendra Singh.

Local BJP MLA Yogesh Sagar had also demanded that police conduct a thorough probe.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has already made signing a Memorandum of Understanding between private vaccination providers and housing societies mandatory if such camps are organized.