Man held for duping covid-19 patient’s family on pretext of remdesivir sale

The suspect, Sudhir Kumar Yadav, was arrested from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur on Thursday. Police said he worked as a labourer in Lucknow but was unemployed following the imposition of the lockdown.

A 23-year-old daily wage worker has been arrested for allegedly cheating a Delhi-based Covid-19 patient’s family of ₹20,000 on the pretext of delivering remdesivir injections, police said on Saturday.

A case was registered on Gupta’s complaint, following which Yadav was arrested.

The suspect, Sudhir Kumar Yadav, was arrested from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur on Thursday. Police said he worked as a labourer in Lucknow but was unemployed following the imposition of the lockdown.

Police said Yadav’s friend persuaded him to dupe people looking for life-saving medicines and injections. Police are on the lookout for his accomplices.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) R P Meena said a woman, Pooja Gupta, filed a complaint alleging that a person cheated her of ₹20,000 for getting six remdesivir injections for her sister-in-law, a critical Covid-19 patient.

“Gupta found a supplier’s number on a WhatsApp group and contacted the person, who demanded ₹9,000 for each injection and tricked her into paying ₹20,000 as a token amount. After the money was transferred, the person gave Gupta the contact number of a delivery boy. However, after dilly-dallying for two days, the cellphones of both the persons were switched off,” said DCP Meena.

A case was registered on Gupta’s complaint, following which Yadav was arrested. Police said he was using a fake name “Sunny” to contact and con Gupta.

In another case, a 29-year-old man was arrested from Dwarka’s Sector 23 on Friday for his alleged involvement in black-marketing of oxygen cylinders. Four cylinders were recovered from his car. “The arrest was made following information that a man was involved in hoarding and black marketing of oxygen cylinders. The suspect, identified as Mohit, was arrested with four cylinders kept in his car,” said DCP (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena.