3 People Including a Doctor Arrested For Black Marketing Remdesivir In UP: Cops

Three people, including a doctor working at a Delhi hospital, were arrested in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly selling Remdesivir injections at black market prices to people in need amid the COVID-19 crisis, authorities said.

Senior Police (Crime) official Abhishek Singh said the defendants were held with three vials of Remdesivir by officials from the Crime Section and Sector 24 police stations following a tip on Thursday.

“The detainees have been identified as Mujibur Rahman, Hamza, and Dr. Imam, who says he works at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in Delhi. Hamza has a money transfer shop in Ghaziabad, while Mujibur Rahman works in a pharmacy in Noida, “the officer said.

The trio would buy back unused Remdesivir injections from people who had bought the crucial drug for COVID-19 patients in their family or among acquaintances on the open market or hospitals at cheap prices and then sell it on the black market, he said.

“Then they would sell it to needy people at the rate of Rs 35,000 per vial and share the profits among themselves. So far, they have sold about a dozen injections,” Singh said.

The defendants are being questioned further and other details are being collected about them, he added.

Police said they seized a Maruti Brezza that was being used by the trio and confiscated their mobile phones and three vials of Remdesivir.

An FIR has been filed against him and a judicial process has been started, they added.

Around half a dozen people have been arrested in Noida and Greater Noida over the past 10 days for alleged black marketing of Remdesivir against its normal price, which does not exceed 3,500 rupees. The antiviral drug is not readily available on the open market amid a surge in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.