Nursing staff arrested by Pimpri-Chinchwad police for alleged black marketing of Mucormycosis injections

Police have secured 14 Liposomal Amphotericin B injections amounting to Rs 84,000 and 8 Amphotericin B Liposome worth Rs 60,000 from the nursing staff after a decoy customer sent by the cops confirmed her as the supplier.

Modus operandi, the nursing staff used to illegally supply the injections to the medical representative, who in turn, sold them in Maharashtra.

As per recent media reports, the alleged smuggling of the drug came to light after the Deputy Commissioner of Police Sudhir Hiremath, received a tip-off, and on the 7th of June the police arrested five persons including a medical store owner in Wakad, a salesman at a medical store in Pashan, a hospital security staff in Kasba Peth, a nurse at a municipal Covid care centre, and a medical store owner in Pune after three such illegal injections were seized from them.

Food and Drugs Administration officer, Bhagyashree Yadav, registered a case at the Wakad police station and the accused were booked under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC, and relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, reports The Indian Express.

According to Punekar News, Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissioner Krishna Prakash stated, "While investigating the case, our team zeroed in on the medical representative and during interrogation, he named the nursing staff as the supplier. We sent a decoy customer to him to verify the black marketing of the injection. After confirmation, he was taken into custody and 22 injections were seized from his possession. Further investigation is going on to find out if more staff of Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences are involved."

The initial investigation suggested that the accused were allegedly selling the Liposomal Amphotericin B at Rs 21,000 when it actually costs around Rs 7,800, and Bevacizumab at Rs 65,000 against its original price which is Rs 54,000. These injections were reportedly being illegally acquired and sold by the accused in the open market without any prescription.