4 staffers of 3 top pvt hospitals held for trade in Remdesivir, Fabiflu

Bareilly: Moradabad police on Wednesday arrested four staffers working in the city's three prominent private hospitals for alleged black marketing of Remdesivir injections and Fabiflu tablets. A hunt is on to nab one more person who is on the run.

According to police, a complaint was registered by the family of a Covid-positive patient with the Moradabad SSP following which raids were conducted and the four were caught red-handed.

The accused have been identified as Piyush Kumar, 22, of Kotwali area; Kamran, 24, of Kanth in Moradabad; Saddam, 26, of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand, and Jeewan, 25 of Shahzadnagar in Rampur. Rikki Thakur, 28, of Bilari, is on the run, police said.

“Acting on the complaint, a special operations group (SOG) and the Majhola police launched a joint operation to crack down on the black marketing racket and raids were conducted on prominent private hospitals in the city. The accused were apprehended and two empty and two full vials of Remdesivir injection, one syringe, 12 Fabiflu tablets and Rs 62,000 cash were recovered from their possession,” said Prabhakar Chaudhary, SSP, Moradabad.

During interrogation, the four suspects said they stole Remdesivir and other medicines for treating Covid patients from hospital supplies and sold them at a premium. Each Remdesivir vial was sold for Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000.

Authorities at the three hospitals did not respond to calls made by TOI.

Mukesh Shukla, SHO of Majhola police station, said an FIR has been registered against the accused under various IPC sections.


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