The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached the assets of two persons who allegedly supplied the fake Remdesivir injections that were sold in Madhya Pradesh and some other States at exorbitant rates during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The supply chain of these injections was found to be from a manufacturing facility in Gujarat’s Surat.
The assets worth ₹ 1.04 crore are in the form of cash and bank balance, belonging to Kaushal Mahendrabhai Vora and Punit Gunvantlal Shah. The action has been taken on the basis of the ED’s money laundering probe against certain persons for the manufacture and sale of fake Remdesivir injections.
The Morbi police in Gujarat had earlier registered a case in respect of the sale of fake Remdesivir injections from the said manufacturing facility. “The injections were also sold to various vendors, retail customers and hospitals based in Madhya Pradesh. The Indore police had also instituted a case alleging an attempt to sell fake remdesivir injections there,” said an official.
The ED found that the fake injections were being manufactured by mixing glucose and salt, which were filled in the bottles bearing stickers that were deceptively similar to that of the branded original injections. Empty bottles of the same size and similar appearance, huge quantities of glucose and salt, packing material and fake stickers were seized during the searches conducted by the Morbi police at the farmhouse-cum-manufacturing facility in Surat.
Investigations revealed that in some cases, the injections were also directly sold in retail to the needy customers who were identified by the accused persons through social media platforms during the peak of the second wave of COVID-19. They were also supplied in hospitals and sold through vendors.
Kaushal Vora was allegedly the mastermind behind the entire racket. During the searches on his premises and that of the co-accused, the police had seized huge amounts of cash.
