MAN HELD FOR BLACK MARKETING REMDESIVIR INJECTIONS IN GB NAGAR

Noida Police on Tuesday night arrested a man for allegedly hoarding Remdesivir injections and selling them at a high price.

The injection is used to treat Covid patients with moderate symptoms.

The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Rachit Ghai (30) from Delhi who had been residing in Noida’s sector 158 since March. According to police, he used to run a box manufacturing business in Delhi till last year, which went under during the lockdown.

“He first sold the injections at a smaller profit margin to people he had come in contact through social media,” said Abhishek Singh, deputy commissioner of police, crime.

Ghai later allegedly sold the injections for between ₹15,000 to ₹40,000. The market price for the drug is between ₹899 to ₹4,000 depending on the manufacturer. Police said he sourced the injections from Chandigarh.

“We are working on identifying who was providing him with the medicine and to how many people he had already sold the injections to. His accomplices, if any, are also being looked at,” said the DCP.

In a joint operation of the sector 20 police with crime branch, Ghai was nabbed from near a private school in sector 29 on Tuesday night and police allegedly recovered 105 Remdesivir injections (100 made in India and five from Bangladesh) from his possession along with ₹1.54 lakh and a Santro car.

He was booked at the sector 20 police station under sections 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Drugs and cosmetics Act and the Epidemic Act.

AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Monday asked doctors to exercise caution while prescribing Remdesivir to patients and said that the drug being used to treat Covid-19 was not a ‘magic bullet’. He advised doctors that the drug does not reduce mortality and is of no use if given to people with mild symptoms.