Hardeep Singh Puri targets Congress after Youth neta arrested in fake Remdesivir case

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday took his official Twitter account and said, "What depths can people stoop to?" Stating that some of those, who were running a fake Remdesivir racket in Madhya Pradesh were found to be affiliated to a 'national' political party, Hardeep Singh Puri said that now it is time for the leaders of this party to seriously introspect and take corrective action. 

Hardeep Singh Puri on fake Remdesivir racket in MP

This statement by the Civil Aviation Minister comes after a Youth Congress leader was arrested from Faridabad for his alleged involvement in black marketing of oxygen cylinders. Earlier, another Congress leader had been arrested in Indore for the sale of fake Remdesivir injections, which is a key antiviral medicinal drug used for treating COVID-19 patients. 

Indore police on Thursday arrested Congress leader Prashant Parashar, along with homeopathic doctor Sarvar Khan, and two others, taking the tally of arrested accused in the fake Remdesivir nexus case to 11.

Ironically, Parashar was elected as the City coordinator of Bhopal by the Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress for overlooking the SOS alerts emanating from the state in the wake of the resurgent coronavirus outbreak. According to the police, Prashant Parashar was a part of a nexus involved in the rampant distribution of fake Remdesivir injections in Madhya Pradesh.

So far, the officials have seized 437 of the 700 fake Remdesivir injections that were smuggled to Indore from Gujarat based on call recordings and other interrogations of the arrested accused in the case. The matter had come to light about three weeks back when the authorities arrested two men—Dinesh Choudhary and Dheeraj Sajwani—and recovered two injections from them. During their interrogation, the police realised that there was a larger nexus of distribution of fake Remdesivir was active in the state. It subsequently arrested Praveen alias Siddharth Fulke and Aseem Bhale. Aseem admitted to purchasing and coordinating with one Sunil Mishra for the injections. When the police checked the location of Mishra, they found him to be residing in Surat of Gujarat. The police then shared a tip with the Gujarat Police of Mishra’s involvement in black marketing of Remdesivir.

Acting on the tip-off, the Gujarat police in the coming days busted a fake Remdesivir injection making factory in the Morbi area and arrested Kaushal Bohra, Puneet Shah and subsequently Sunil Mishra in the case. Based on the interrogation and information received from the arrested accused, the police found that Mishra had sent 100 injections to the Congress leader Prashant Parashar, a Youth Congress leader who was said to be preparing for sub-inspector examination and had completed his engineering from Bhopal. The accused Congress leader was traced on Thursday in Bhopal and was arrested by the officials.

Speaking on the Congress leader’s arrest, SP Ashutosh Bagri said, “He admitted of selling and giving injections to his friends and family. However, he admitted to having received only 66 injections. We will verify this once we get the remand of the accused Sunil Mishra.” Mishra had reportedly called Prashant to check on the health of those administered with the injections when he understood that there was something wrong with them and threw the remaining 8 injections in a water body.

Additionally, 500 of the 700 injections were reportedly sent to Jabalpur city hospital where they were administered to the patients. Police said the batch number of all the injections was identical, which meant they were manufactured in the same factory in Gujarat.

Black Marketing of O2 Cylinders: Cong leader arrested in Faridabad

A few days back, one Congress leader named Bijendra Mavi was arrested in Faridabad for his alleged involvement in black marketing of oxygen cylinders. A case was registered against the Congress leader under various sections including the Disaster Management Act after the police found 50 oxygen cylinders from his house at Indra Complex Colony, Faridabad, Haryana. Police informed that the accused had hidden the oxygen cylinders in his car.

According to reports, Khedipul police were patrolling on Tigaon Road, Faridabad, when their informer tipped them off about the Congress leader’s involvement in black marketing of oxygen cylinders. Based on the information provided, police conducted a raid. Drug control officer Sandeep Gahlan was also present.

On checking the Congress leader’s vehicle, 42 empty and 8 filled cylinders were found. The police asked Mavi to produce the license and required permits for the oxygen cylinders. When the accused could not produce valid documents, police took him into their custody and seized the 50 oxygen cylinders.

(Image: PTI)