Man arrested for duping needy patients under the guise of supplying Remdesivir

The Tilak Nagar police have arrested a 35-year-old man from Vasai for allegedly duping COVID-19 patients and their relatives on the pretext of selling them Remdesivir, an antiviral drug used for treating serious COVID-19 patients.

According to the police, the accused identified as Rupesh Gupta, who works at a pest control firm, saw an opportunity to make money and decided to dupe needy people by selling them fake drug. In the last 15 days, Gupta allegedly duped 8-9 people, said Tilak Nagar police officials

He came on police radar after he allegedly duped a woman for Rs 18,000 on Monday. The woman contacted him after receiving his contact details on WhatsApp and asked him to deliver five vials of the drug and paid Rs 18,000 online. But instead of Remdesivir she received some white powder. On her complaint the police registered an offence of cheating and under the sections of Information Technology act and began looking for Gupta. On Thursday police traced him to Vasai and arrested him.

During his questioning, he said that he decided to use the shortage of Remdesivir for his own benefit and circulated his mobile number on WhatsApp as a purported dealer of Remdesivir and started accepting orders, said Tilak Nagar police. Instead of providing Remdesivir, Gupta used to supply, Traxol-S, and for each vial he charged Rs 3000 - Rs 4000, added police officials.

"During the investigation we learnt the accused have allegedly supplied 29 vials to 8-9 people from Borivali, Andheri, Dadar and Ghatkopar in turn cheating them. We are urging people to come forward and complain if they have been cheated by the accused," said Sunil Kale, senior inspector of Tilak Nagar police station.