Mumbai: Pharma firm employee, associate held for black marketing of Remdesivir

The special operation group (SOG) of Valsad police had on Wednesday (April 14) arrested Bruck Pharma Company’s technical director and his associate for allegedly selling Remdesivir injection in the black market and seized 18 injections from them

The special operation group (SOG) of Valsad police had on Wednesday (April 14) arrested Bruck Pharma Company’s technical director and his associate for allegedly selling Remdesivir injection in the black market and seized 18 injections from them.

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The arrested accused Manish Singh and his associate Varun Kundra are both, residents of Vapi. Singh claimed that he worked as a technical director in Bruck Pharma company in Daman, while Kundra owns a furniture store at Vapi, said superintendent of police, Rajdeep Singh Jhala.

We received a tip-off about Kundra selling Remdesivir injection at a higher price than the market, hence an officer of SOG was sent as a decoy. Sub-inspector Amirajsingh Rana approached him as a customer and asked him that he required a few injections as a person known to him was suffering from Covid-19. Kundra agreed to give one injection for ₹12,000, said Jhala.

The trap was laid on Thursday and Kundra was arrested when he came to deliver the injection from Vapi to Valsad. During the search, police found a total of 12 injections from his possession. During interrogation, he confessed that he got injections from his friend Singh, who worked in a pharmaceutical firm in Daman.

Both the accused were arrested under the charges of 420 (cheating), 114 of the Epidemic Disease Act and other relevant sections of the Essential Commodity Act. They are in the police custody, added Jhala.