Mumbai Housing Society Suspects Of Being Scammed By Fake Vaccine Drive; BMC To Begin Probe

"If the vaccine is found to be spurious, the people who got vaccinated will have a medical emergency to deal with." the complaint said.

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Mumbai: A housing society in the Kandivali area, Mumbai filed a complaint with the police claimed that they were scammed by few persons who claimed to be from a private hospital and organized a vaccination camp for its members. They further said that the vaccine that was administered could be spurious.

The vaccination camp was arranged by the residential complex on May 30th. 

Hiranandani Heritage Residents Welfare Association (HHRWA), has sought an investigation into the matter. In the complaint, they stated that they found that the Co-WIN portal did not have any record of the people who participated 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.

The HHRWA had organized the camp through a person who claimed to be a sales representative of a reputed private hospital in suburban Andheri. As many as 390 members received the jabs at the camp at Rs 1,260 per person, it had said in the complaint which stated that some unscrupulous elements have taken the society for a ride. They were shocked to receive vaccination certificates in the name of Nanavati Hospital, Lifeline Hospital and NESCO Covid Camp, among others, it said.

Nanavati Hospital had said in a statement that it had not conducted any such vaccination camp. "We have informed the authorities and are lodging a formal complaint," said its spokesperson on Tuesday. The HHRWA also said that none of the people who got vaccinated had the usual after-effects like fever or body ache.

According to the complaint, one Sanjay Gupta was the coordinator for the camp, but he did not give receipts for the payment for vaccines. He had asked the association to make payment to one Mahendra Singh. The housing society also said that members of the vaccinating team had no laptops or other equipment.

Local BJP MLA Yogesh Sagar had also demanded that police conduct a thorough probe. The BMC has made signing a Memorandum of Understanding between private vaccination providers and housing societies mandatory if such camps are organized.

The civic body also appealed to housing societies to ensure due diligence by verifying various aspects before conducting a vaccination camp in collaboration with private vaccination centres. The BMC said each private vaccination center is given a registration number by the Co-WIN system, and the housing societies should contact the medical health officers and crosscheck about the registration of the private vaccination centres.

Societies should also check the identity cards of the employees of private centres while conducting vaccination camps, it said. Besides this, the citizens should also insist on getting digital certificates immediately after vaccination, the civic body added. 

(With Agency inputs)