Two male nurses held for selling Remdesivir

Two male staffers from a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut have been arrested for allegedly selling Remdesivir injection that was allotted to a patient who never got it and died due to Covid-19 a few days ago.

Meerut (UP):Two male staff nurses of a prominent private hospital in Meerut have been arrested for allegedly trying to sell Remdesivir injection that was allotted to a patient who never got it and died due to Covid-19 a few days ago.

The male nurses were selling the injection for Rs 32,000 in the 'open market'.

The medicine, which costs about Rs 900-Rs 2000, was put up for auction and the winning bid was Rs 25,000.

Read:Man arrested for duping people on pretext of providing Remdesivir injections

The two were caught by policemen who acted as decoys. They posed as distressed relatives of a patient.

According to reports, a patient, Shobhit Jain, was to be administered the injection due to his critical condition. He got three doses but the fourth was pocketed by the two nurses.

When Jain died, they started looking for customers. Bids were invited and the deal was finally struck at Rs 25,000. However, they fell into the police trap.

"Our surveillance team and policemen were working on the case after a tip-off. The price negotiation went on for seven days. The nurses had quoted Rs 32,000. The injection was meant for one Shobhit Jain. But he died and the vial was diverted. We have arrested the nurses, Abid Khan and Ankit Sharma," said Ajay Sahni, SSP, Meerut.

Read:Task force formed to check oxygen, Remdesivir black marketing

He further said, "After the deal was struck, our team reached the hospital and asked for the injection. When the nurses got to know it was cops who had come for the medicine, they tried to flee but we caught them. Six security guards deployed there tried to protect the duo but they were also overpowered by the police team."

The guards have also been arrested.

The SSP said that all of them have been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 147 (rioting), 342 (wrongful confinement), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). Sections of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Epidemic Diseases Act have also been invoked against them.

Read:Illegal sale of Remdesivir injection: Three arrested in Karnataka

The hospital management, meanwhile, said it was an "isolated incident" and that they had no information about it. They, however, supported the police action.

Dr Atul Krishna, trustee of Subharti KKB Charitable Trust, which runs the hospital, said, "It was an isolated case and not a practice as claimed by the police. And as the policemen were in plain clothes carrying weapons, the guards on duty tried to stop them."

IANS