Mumbai fake vaccine scam: medical association clerk, a hospital chosen as a centre

Last year, COVID placed Bank of Baroda Malad branch manager Pramod Kumar on life support for nine days. Seven other coworkers had also become affected, making them apprehensive of dealing with customers. Therefore, when a long-term account holder, Mahendra Pratap Singh, offered vaccination in April, Kumar leapt at the chance.

A vaccination program for personnel and their families, totalling roughly 40 persons, was planned at Shivam Hospital for Rs800 per injection. The location of the second dose was changed at the last minute to a bank branch office on May 25. Singh and two others arrived that day, carrying an ice chest filled with vials. While they were taking down the names and Aadhaar numbers of the beneficiaries, no one mentioned Co-WIN. The bank personnel were aware of that one, but did not give it much thought.

The first questions were raised when the 40 did not obtain their final immunisation certificate, nor did their second dosage appear on Co-WIN. Twenty days later, a bank employee saw a WhatsApp forward about an arrest in a phoney vaccine scheme; the man in question was Singh.

“When there is good faith, no one suspects anything,” a terrified Kumar says. This man worked in the medical field and had a bank account with us since 2013. We had faith in him.”

Employees of Bank of Baroda are said to have been among the first victims of Singh and his associates, who are accused of holding at least nine fraudulent vaccine drives around Mumbai. So far, police have recorded 10 FIRs, counted 2,680 'victims,' many of whom were actually injected with saline water, and estimated the gang's revenues at more than Rs 26 lakh.

Singh, 39, was in the centre of it all.

Singh, a Class 10 dropout, has a connection to medicine through his 15 years as a clerk with the Malad Medical Association, which gave him access to 2,000 doctor members, pharmaceutical agents, and marketing people. The swindle began shortly after the group fired Singh in April for exploiting the organization's name and premises.

Next in the series is the owners of Shivam Hospital, Dr Shivraj Pataria and his wife Neeta, whom Singh knew well. Shivam Hospital, one of the institutions registered as a private vaccination centre with the BMC, received 23,350 pills from the government for Rs 150 each and used 22,826 of them. While BMC Assistant Commissioner Sanjay Kurhade claims that leftover dosages were returned, Mumbai Police suspect that hospital vials were maintained and were used in drives – in the early days, at least some may have had genuine vaccines.

In turn, Patarias is accused of enlisting the help of Manish Tripathi, who operates Knowledge Centre for Educational Planning Pvt Ltd, a private coaching facility for medical and engineering students out of a rented premises at Shivam Hospital. Tripathi reportedly hired three of his pupils, Karim Akbar Ali, Roshni Patel, and Ajit Benwasi, all between the ages of 19 and 20, to transport and administrate injections.

Sanjay Gupta, Singh's buddy and event manager, reportedly assisted in organising the drives, scheduling the timings, and figuring out logistics. Seema Ahuja and Shrikant Mane, who had lost their employment at travel firm Cox & Kings due to the pandemic, reportedly joined Gupta and Singh in May.

Rajesh Pandey, Singh's friend and a marketing executive at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, is also charged with aiding the accused in spreading the notion that the hospital was behind the vaccination programmes.

Singh and others staged the first vaccine campaign on April 23 — at a time when such camps for private organisations were not permitted. The tenth took place on June 6th.

According to the Central Government, private hospitals must sign an MoU with the society or corporate office where the camp would be conducted and notify the local civic body. An MoU was neither formed, nor was BMC notified, for any of the drives being investigated.

The misled housing societies and private organisations admit to ignorance of norms as well as a desire to obtain immunizations as soon as possible.

It was finally a series of tweets from a resident of Kandivali's posh Hiranandani Heritage Society, where a false drive was held on May 30, that caught the attention of police.

When residents of the community began requesting immunisation certificates, the gang attempted to get access to Co-WIN using several hospital IDs. Chandan Singh and Nitin Mode, data entry operators at Lifeline Hospital who had access to these IDs, allegedly came in at that time. They are also thought to have enlisted the help of Gudiya Yadav, who worked at the NESCO Covid jumbo centre and had access to a Co-WIN login ID.

They did, however, make a mistake. They typed in the incorrect date and time for the vaccination drive. Because multiple logins were used, the hospital's name on immunisation certificates varied depending on the beneficiary. This is what eventually put a stop to the swindle.

Thirteen of the twenty accused have been detained. Despite the fact that no adverse reactions have been reported, authorities have filed culpable homicide accusations. Vishwas Nangre Patil, Joint Commissioner of Law and Order, stated on Thursday that beneficiaries were given saline water instead of immunizations.

According to Health Minister Rajesh Tope, they are considering conducting an antibody test on all 2,680 defrauded beneficiaries. Following that, he states, "We will prepare proper vaccination and register them on Co-WIN after discussing the problem with the Central government."