Mumbai Vaccination Racket: Production Houses Including Tips Duped After Housing Society Scam

The revelation comes hours after a housing society in Mumbai was apparently cheated by some persons who organised a Covid-19 vaccination camp representing a private hospital.

(Representative Image/Getty)

Mumbai: In yet another incident of fake vaccine scam in Mumbai, famous Bollywood producer Ramesh Taurani has alleged that several production houses were also affected in the vaccination racket operational in the city. 

Taurani heads Tips Industries Limited and has alleged that over 350 employees of his firm were vaccinated between May 30 and June 3, but they have still not recieved the certificates.

"We are still waiting for the certificates and when my office people contacted him (Sanjay Gupta from SP Events), he said it will come by this Saturday (June 12)," Taurani told India Today Television.

As per the producer, the vaccination centre charged Rs 1,200 per dose plus GST. 

The revelation comes hours after a housing society in Mumbai's Kandivali area complained to police that it was apparently cheated by some persons who organised a Covid-19 vaccination camp representing a private hospital.

The society, Hiranandani Heritage Residents Welfare Association (HHRWA), has urged for an investigation into the matter.

The society arranged vaccination camp on May 30 but later it found that the CoWIN portal did not have any record of the people who got vaccinated and they received certificates in the name of different hospitals.

"If the vaccine is found to be spurious, the people who got vaccinated will have a medical emergency to deal with. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate the whole episode so that such fraudulent activities are not repeated at other places," the complaint said.

According to the complaint, a person named Sanjay Gupta was the coordinator for the camp. Interestingly, Sanjay Gupta was also identified by Taurani as a representative of SP Events who organised vaccination camp for Tips employees.

The India Today report also highlights that several other production houses have also faced similar situation, another being Matchbox Pictures, which organised vaccination camp for 150 employees.

Employees of Matchbox Production got first shot of Covishield on May 29 (again via SP events), same group that conducted camps for Tips and Kandivali housing society.

Meanwhile, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made it mandatory for such vaccination camps to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between private vaccination providers, with MoU having all relevant details.

According to BMC, as many as 41,11,880 people have been administered the vaccine in Mumbai including 8,24,428 who have got both doses.