Delhi: Doctor, nurse among 6 arrested for black-marketeering of Remdesivir injections

A 30-year-old Ayurvedic doctor and a nurse were among six people arrested here for alleged black-marketeering of antiviral drug Remdesivir, police said on Tuesday. 

According to police, the nurse, Lalitesh (24), was deployed in the COVID ward of a private hospital in south Delhi and would procure Remdesivir injections of COVID patients who got discharged.

However, in the records she showed that the drug was used during treatment, police said, adding that the injections were passed on to her associates  Vipul Verma (29), from Laxmi Nagar, Vishal Kashyap (22), a resident of Moti Nagar, and Shubham (23), who lives in Moti Nagar, police said.

The group would demand Rs 70,000 for each injection, police said.

According to police, information was received that a person would come near Haiderpur Bus Stand for delivering a Remdesivir injection. A raid was conducted and Verma was apprehended, a senior police officer said. 

"On his instance, his associates Kashyap and Shubham were also arrested. Six injections were recovered from their possession. Later, Lalitesh, who was the source of recovered injections, was also nabbed, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Guriqbal Singh Sidhu said. 

In a separate incident, a BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine, and Surgery) doctor and security guard of a hospital were arrested for allegedly selling Remdesivir injections at inflated prices, police said. 

On Saturday, information was received that one Ashwani (32), who is the security supervisor at Sonia Hospital, Nangloi, was selling the Remdesivir injection at inflated rates, police said. 

Delhi Police Crime Branch apprehended Ashwani with one Remdesivir injection. During interrogation, he disclosed that the injection was given to him by Parshant, a doctor working at the hospital, they said. 

Later, a raid was conducted and Parshant was arrested. Four more vials of Remdesivir injections were seized from him, police said.