MP: Three patients died after being given fake Remdesivir, kin allege

Indore, May 11 (PTI) Three COVID-19 patients allegedly died here after being administered fake Remdesivir injections and a probe has been launched, Indore police said on Tuesday.

The fake medicine, which contained only glucose water and salt, had been supplied by an inter-state gang based in Gujarat, police said.

"Sunil Mishra, a resident of Indore who was associated with this gang, sold fake Remdesivir injections to many people in the city in the past one month. The relatives of three persons who died after taking fake injections have lodged complaints," Superintendent of Police (Eastern Region) Ashutosh Bagri told PTI.

Mishra, who sold at least 1,200 fake Remdesivir vials in Madhya Pradesh, has been arrested by the Gujarat Police alongwith others, the SP said.

Now police have invoked IPC section 304 (culpable homicide) in addition to other offences against Mishra and others besides the National Security Act (NSA), he said.

Vijay Nagar police station in-charge Tahjib Kaji said all three patients who allegedly died after being administered fake Remdesivir were male, aged between 40 and 55 years.

After the death of one of these patients, his wife died, allegedly due to the shock, he said.

"We will investigate the complaints and record the statements of the doctors who treated them," he added.

The Gujarat-based gang supplied at least 1,200 fake Remdesivir vials in Madhya Pradesh, including in Indore, Dewas and Jabalpur districts, through Mishra in the last one month, police believe.

Half of these vials were used in Indore alone. A shopkeeper who had obtained a hundred of these vials was being interrogated.

"We are finding out to whom the injections were sold and administered," the police officer said. PTI HWP ADU KRK KRK