They inject water and do not vaccinate thousands of people in India 0:48
New Delhi (CNN) -
Thousands of people have been the victims of an elaborate, far-reaching scam selling fake covid-19 vaccines in India, and those arrested include doctors and medical personnel for their involvement, According to authorities, at least 12 bogus vaccination campaigns were carried out in or around Mumbai financial center in the western state of Maharashtra, said Vishal Thakur, a senior official with the Mumbai police department. .
"They were injecting saline water," Thakur said.
"In all the fake vaccination camps they organized, they did this."
An estimated 2,500 people received bogus vaccines, he said.
Organizers charged their victims for the injections, earning up to $ 28,000 in total.
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"We have detained doctors," he added.
"They used a hospital that produced the fake certificates, vials and syringes."
So far, there are 14 people detained on suspicion of deception, attempted wrongful death, criminal conspiracy and other charges.
More arrests are possible as police continue to investigate others implicated in the scam, Thakur said.
India was hit by a second wave of coronavirus between April and early June, infecting millions of people and killing tens of thousands across the country.
After peaking in May, daily cases have been slowly declining, easing pressure on the burdened medical system.
In addition, this allowed the authorities to intensify their vaccination program during the recovery of the country.
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Centralized vaccination campaign
In June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a centralized vaccination campaign, in which a significant part of the doses would be provided by the central government to the states for free.
Soon after, the country administered a record 8 million vaccines in one day, a "joyous" sign of the acceleration of the program, Modi said.
So far, more than 62 million people, about 4.5% of the country's population, have received the complete vaccination plan, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The bogus vaccination campaigns took place between late May and early June, according to CNN-News18, a CNN affiliate.
Authorities began investigating after some of the victims of the scam reported the case to the police, suspecting the vaccination certificates they received.
One of the bogus campaigns took place at a housing complex, but "none of our members had any symptoms and we also had to pay cash," a local resident said, according to CNN-News18.
"At the time, we doubted it."
As the police began to investigate, others took legal action on their own.
Siddharth Chandrashekhar, a Mumbai lawyer, filed a public interest lawsuit on June 24, by which time the prosecutor had already confirmed more than 2,000 victims of the scams.
The allegations are "really shocking," the Mumbai High Court said in the complaint, urging state and local authorities to take action "so that innocent people are not fooled in the future."
Indiavaccine against covid-19
