Wakad Police Seize 21 Remdesivir Injections From Black Marketeers, Chemist Among 3 Arrested Persons
Mubarak Ansari
Pimpri Chinchwad, 10th May 2021: The officials from Wakad police station have arrested three persons including a chemist who have been selling Remdesivir injection, allotted to two hospitals, in the black market. Police have seized 21 vials of Remdesivir from their possession.
The arrested persons have been identified as chemist Shashikant Raghunath Panchal (34) of Ayushri Medical, nursing staff Krishna Ramrao Patil of Crystal Hospital Thergaon and delivery boy Nikhil Keshav Neharkar (19) of Onyx Hospital in Bijali Nagar.
According to police, around 2.45 am on May 9, a team intercepted Panchal and Neharkar while they were riding a bike at a checkpoint opposite Athwan Hotel at Kalewadi Phata. During a search, police recovered two Remdesivir vials from their possession.
“The duo was taken into custody as they failed to give satisfactory information about possession of the Remdesivir. During interrogation, they named Panchal as the person who had provided them with the vials for selling them at a higher price. In the past also they have sold the injection at exorbitant rates illegally”, informed Police Commissioner Krishna Prakash.
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He further added, “Panchal was also detained and during a search, our team seized 19 vials of Remdesivir from his car. All the vials are of the same batch. As Panchal also could not explain why there were so many Remdesivir vials in his car, the vials were seized.”
At present, the retail sale of Remdesivir is banned and only hospitals can directly give the injection to patients. The injection is being distributed daily to hospitals in proportion to their functional beds.
“During the investigation, we found that the seized injections were allotted to Crystal Hospital’s inhouse Godawari Medical Store and Ayushri Medical which is attached to Oynx Hospital.
Based on a complaint from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Inspector Bhagyashree Abhiram Yadav, an FIR has been registered against the three accused at Wakad police station. Police have arrested them and also seized two bikes and a car from their possession. They have been charged for offences under sections 420 (cheating), 188 (disobeying order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order 2013, Essential Commodity Act and Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940.
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The action was taken under the guidance of Additional Commissioner of Police Ramnath Pokale, DCP (Zone 2) Anand Bhoite, ACP (Wakad Division) Shrikant Disale, and Senior Police Inspector Vivek Mugalikar, in-charge of Wakad police station.
The team included Police Inspector (Crime 1) Santosh Patil, Police Inspector (Crime 2) Sunil Tonpe, API Abhijit Jadhav, Santosh Patil, PSI Avdhut Shingare and police personnel Dattaprasad Chaudhary, Jitendra Ugle, Atish Jadhav, homeguards Nikil Sapkal and Rohan Gund, FDA Inspectors Bhagyashree Yadav and Shrutika Jadhav.
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