Five persons were arrested from different parts of the city for their alleged involvement in black marketing of Remdesivir injection amid its high demand due to surging COVID-19 cases, police said.
The first set of arrests was made in south Delhi, where three people were nabbed, while two more were taken into custody in west Delhi, they said.
The three arrested in south Delhi were identified as Likhit Gupta (30), a resident of Patparganj, Akash Verma (23), who lives in Daryaganj, and Anuj Jain (40), a resident of Geeta Colony, they said.
They were arrested after police got a tip-off on Sunday that two persons were going near the India Habitat Centre from Khan Market for selling Remdesivir vials at a very high price, a senior police officer said.
Trap laid
“Thereafter, a trap was laid near IHC, Lodhi Road, and a car was checked. On searching and frisking, four vials of Remdesivir injection were recovered from the possession of Gupta and Verma,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said.
The two told the police that they used to sell the vials at ₹70,000 each to needy people, the official said. The third accused, Anuj Jain, used to supply them the vials at high rates to further sell them in the black market, police said. Later, Jain was also arrested and three vials were seized from him, the DCP said.
Gupta has a medical shop at Daryaganj and Jain has one at Chandni Chowk. Verma is a jeweller, police said, adding that a total of seven vials of Remdesivir injections and one car were recovered from their possession.
Speaking about the arrests from west Delhi, police said around 4 p.m. on Sunday, the staffers at Tilak Nagar police station got a tip-off and they nabbed Gurpreet Singh (29) of Tilak Nagar, and Anuj Jaiswal (30) of Geeta Colony, who were allegedly involved in black marketing of Remdesivir. Two vials of Remdesivir were recovered from them.
