Black marketing of Remdesivir, O2 cylinders on the rise
New Delhi/Noida: At the time when Delhi scrambles to contain the Coronavirus crisis, black-marketing of the COVID-19 drug poses another major problem in the city. In the past few weeks, Delhi Police have seized more than 450 Remdesivir vials, oxygen cylinders and other important life-saving equipment from black marketers. According to data from April 18, nearly 100 vials of Remdesivir, over 350 equipment which includes more than 100 oxygen cylinders, 163 oximeters, over 60 flow meters were seized by Delhi Police.
As per the official, in the present scenario when the global pandemic COVID-19 wreak havoc across the city and scarcity of life-saving drugs, some gangs got involved in the storage and black marketing of these drugs. "These inhuman activities created panic in public at large. These gangs are playing with the precious human lives," the official said. "More than 20 people were caught in the heinous act of hoarding, black-marketing of life-saving drugs, equipment," the data shows. As per the official, several accused were in the profession of dealing with medicines, equipment. In one of the cases businessman was also arrested.
Police said the accused people sell these injections in the black market at higher prices and earn huge differences. "They have a set network of persons who supply the injections on demand. There is a chain involved in black marketing, hoarding of the injections, life-saving drugs," the official said.
Recently, one of the gangs busted by the crime branch of Delhi Police revealed that they were operating in major cities supplying Remdesivir at exorbitant prices of Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000.
Last week, Delhi Police seized over 40 cylinders from the Dashrath Puri area of South West Delhi. As per the official, the seized cylinders will be released by Court to an authorized gas vendor or needy hospital in the present scenario.
One Anil Kumar (51) was the owner of the house. He was in the trade of supply of industrial gases. 'He does not have any licence for it. The gas involved is combustible in its present form," the official said. He used to transfer gas into small cylinders from large cylinders and sell them at 12,500 per piece to the needy. His main godown was in Mayapuri.
Meanwhile, common people, who are in dire need of these medicines, are victims of the crime. "None of the chemists around my area is selling medicine at MRP. Almost double price. This is purely criminal. They will not give a receipt. Take it or leave it they say. How will you prove it this is just helpless," said one Anuradha Shukla. There are also cases, where people are being duped by cyber fraud on the pretext of life-saving drugs.
Meanwhile, Ghaziabad police have arrested three persons including an MBBS doctor in connection with the black marketing of Remdesivir injections. Cops said that the doctor had worked as physician in AIIMS and was running his own clinic in Delhi. Police have recovered 70 vials of remdesivir injections and over Rs 36 lakh in cash from the possession of accused that they have earned after selling these injections.
As per police, they used to sell the injections in cities of Delhi-NCR region. The arrested accused have been identified as the prime accused Dr Md Altamash Hussain, who holds an MBBS degree from KGMC college in Lucknow. The other two have been identified as Kumail Akram, a resident of Ghaziabad, and Jajib Ali from Delhi.
The accused were caught red-handed by Ghaziabad's Kotwali police and a SWAT team while they were negotiating the deal with patient's relative outside a private hospital. "Two gang members, Akram and Jajib were arrested red handed and during interrogations they revealed the name of Dr Altamash from whom they used to procure injections and he was arrested following a raid by police team," said Nipun Aggarwal, SP (city), Ghaziabad.
With inputs from Rahul singh
