Pimpri Chinchwad police have arrested five people, including two medical shop owners, a salesman and a nurse at a Covid care centre, over alleged black marketing of two injections — Liposomal Amphotericin B and Bevacizumab — that are used for the treatment of Mucormycosis or Black Fungus.
A team from Pimpri Chinchwad Police’s crime branch had launched a probe into the alleged blackmarketing of Mucormycosis drugs after a tip off was received by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sudhir Hiremath. After preliminary verification of the input from informants, a dummy customer was asked to get in touch with the suspects.
Probe revealed that the suspects were selling vials of Liposomal Amphotericin B at Rs 21,000 as against the price of Rs 7,800 and Bevacizumab at Rs 65,000 against the price of Rs 54,000. These injections were being illegally procured and sold without any prescription. A trap was laid on Tuesday in Wakad as the sale was finalised with the dummy customer.
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Police initially arrested Gaurav Jagtap (31) who owns a medical store in Wakad. Investigation revealed three of his accomplices — Amol Manjrekar (39) who works a salesman at a medical store in Pashan, Ganesh Kotme (32), who works as a ‘bouncer’ at a hospital in Kasba Peth, and Mamta Jalit (24), who works as a nurse at a municipal Covid care centre. Further, working on the information received from the suspects, the crime branch arrested Pradeep Londhe (35), who also owns a medical store and was allegedly selling Bevacizumab at higher rates.
All the suspects have been booked under provisions of the Essential Commodities Act and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. All the suspects were produced before a court on Tuesday and were remanded to police custody for four days.
