In a major operation, the Maharashtra Cyber Police have busted a racket that was selling fake Remdesivir and Tocilizumab drugs filled with plain water. The two drugs are important for the treatment of critical Covid-19 cases.
The Maharashtra Cyber Police received complaints of the fake drugs being sold online. In a complaint, a leading pharmaceutical company stated that a few mobile numbers were posted on various WhatsApp groups as well as other social media platforms, offering to deliver the drugs on advance payment of 50 per cent amount through online transactions, and rest on delivery.
“The investigation team of Maharashtra Cyber Police immediately started the probe. In the preliminary investigation, it was found that many of the needy citizens had paid the entire money in advance,” officials said.
When those who paid money followed up on the contact numbers provided for the medicine delivery they were given replies like “vaccine shall be made available in a few hours”, “it is on its way” and so on and the calls were disconnected and later switched off.
“Further, it was also found that many of the citizens had received water and fake medicines in the bottles labelled as medicines with the complainant company’s name and logo on the medicines,” the officials said.
The Maharashtra Cyber Police have registered an FIR against various unknown persons for indulging in the fraud and playing with the lives of innocent citizens during the pandemic.
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