Mumbai Police arrests 8 people for holding fake coronavirus vaccination camps

Mumbai Police lodged FIRs and arrested the accused, including a woman, who shared the User ID/ password of a COWIN account to generate fake vaccination certificates.

They have been charged with attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder, said an NDTV report.

Police said people may have been administered saline or salt water.

"Eight accused have been arrested and Rs 12.40 lakh that was fraudulently obtained has been recovered. Bank accounts of the main accused - Manish Tripathi and Mahendra Singh - have been frozen," Vishwas Nangre Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) was quoted as saying by NDTV.

"We have also discovered eight more camps had been organised by this syndicate, and that most of the accused are common across all these crimes," he added.

According to the report, police have said some victims have claimed that the vials used to administer the fake vaccines were sourced from Gujarat, but it is still not clear what they actually contained.

The Serum Institute, which manufactures Covishield, has written to the city's civic body - Brihanmumbai Corporation - seeking its help to track the batch numbers of vials used in the fake vaccine camps.

The scam came to light after Hiranandani Heritage Residents Welfare Association filed a complaint that they had been cheated by a group of people who claimed to be the representatives of a private hospital and organised a camp for its residents.

A similar complaint was filed by film producer Ramesh Taurani who said he had organised a vaccination camp for 365 employees on May 30 and June 3 but nobody received certificates.

Police said Mahendra Singh is the mastermind and another Sanjay Gupta among the accused helped set up fake vaccination camps.

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court asked the BMC to find out the contents of the vials, assess the health of the victims, test victims for Covid-19 antibodies and also conduct proper vaccinations for them.