Chhattisgarh: Govt doctor suspended over alleged black marketing of COVID-19 vaccines

The accused has been identified as a child specialist posted at the Primary Health Centre Korba and he was serving on a contractual basis. According to PTI, there were complaints that the accused medical professional was allegedly acquiring COVID-19 vaccines from the government hospital and was selling them at his private clinic. Following the complaint, the Korba Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sunil Nayak investigated the matter, Korba Collector Ranu Sahu said.

"The probe revealed that the doctor had been allegedly indulged in the black marketing of the vaccines. He has been terminated from service and a directive has been issued to seal his private clinic which was being operated without any license, with immediate effect," she said.

The SDM said it was not immediately known how the doctor obtained the vaccines. 'Each vial of the vaccine has 10 doses in total, and once opened for inoculation, all doses have to be used within a stipulated period of time. The doctor told us that he had been bringing the left vaccines (considered as wastage) in a vial,' Nayak said.

However, official records showed no vaccine wastage was reported in the past two months in any vaccination centre in the Korba district, he said. He also informed that further investigation is underway.

A few months ago a similar incident took place near Ghaziabad where a doctor, who had earlier worked at AIIMS Delhi, was arrested by a joint team of special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and Kotwali police for allegedly hoarding Remdesivir injections. Police recovered 70 vials of Remdesivir injections along with cash over Rs 36 lakh earned by hoarding the drug.