Mumbai: Fraudsters also held vax drives for two film production houses

MUMBAI: Just a day before the fraudulent vaccination camp at an upper crust Kandivali society, former hospital employee Rajesh Pandey had organised a similar camp at a film production house in Andheri where 150 people were vaccinated. A Kandivali police team visited the production house and gathered details of the camp. Bollywood producer Ramesh Taurani too said Pandey had organised a vaccination camp for his staff and colleagues on May 29, the same day as the camp at the other production house, as well as on June 3.Till late on Thursday, no FIR was registered. Police said they are awaiting the BMC's technical report before proceeding further.
Pandey used to work at the Kokilaben Ambani Hospital and has since been sacked. A producer attached with the Andheri based production house said they were acquainted with Pandey for three years and trusted him implitcitly. "Pandey would help us get appointments out of turn with the best doctors or organise beds if someone from our staff or families needed hospitalisation. He was our go-to man for all medical needs. So, when the authorities gave a go-ahead to private hospitals to carry out vaccination camps in societies and corporate offices, we approached Pandey," he said.
On May 21, Pandey texted the producer to ask how many people were to be vaccinated. The production house gave him a list of names, Aadhaar numbers and Co-Win registration numbers of 150 people. These included some of their crew, residents of the housing society where their office was located and support staff like watchmen, drivers and helps. On May 29, the vaccination camp was carried out and Pandey dropped in for sometime to check if everything was fine. He told the producer that the beneficiaries' data would be entered online by their back office later. When the certificates were not generated, the producer inquired with Pandey. Later, a few beneficiaries received certificates issued by a Vile Parle based hospital that was not involved in the vaccination camp. Pandey had charged Rs 1260 per person for the shots and asked for the money to be transferred online into a current account.
"It was only after Hiranandani Heritage residents approached the police and Pandey was picked up for questioning did we realise that our vaccination camp was fraudulent as well. We are very worried as to what have our crew and society residents been injected with and whether it could harm them," said the producer. We immediately got our crew to undergo RT-PCR tests to rule out Covid infections," he said.
A bunch of film producers had planned to pool in money and get Pandey to organise vaccination for an entire slum colony. They are glad the scam came to light before they could do so.
Taurani too said they trusted Pandey as he was a Kokilaben Ambani Hospital staffer. "A vaccination drive was carried out on May 29 and June 3 for our staff, film unit colleagues and workers and we are still waiting for certificates. When my office contacted Pandey, he said the certificates will come by Saturday. Over 350 of our people were vaccinated and paid up Rs 1200 per person plus GST. Apart from the loss of money, we are worried whether our staff was given Covishield or saline water. Mumbai police is investigating it and we will come to know soon," Taurani said. The vaccination drives were organised in Khar and Andheri by an event management company.