2 held for black marketing mucormycosis medicines

New Delhi: A 46-year-old man and his driver were arrested for allegedly selling anti-fungal drug amphotericin, used for treatment of mucormycosis, at an exorbitant rate, police said on Monday.

The suspect, Rajnish Shrivastava, whose firm 'AmbuSmith Inc.' deals in trading of medical equipment and ambulance modification, brought these injections from Lucknow and sold them in Delhi at a higher price. His driver, Murtaza Khan (36), also helped him in this business, police said.

In a complaint at the Saket police station, two students stated that while they were trying to arrange Amphotericin-B for a patient, they came in contact with Shrivastava, who was selling it at Rs 11,300 per injection, about 36 times the MRP.

The complainants, who are members of a WhatsApp group that help in arranging medicines for patients suffering from Covid and black fungus, informed police that Shrivastava had agreed to deliver 20 injections for Rs 2.26 lakh.

A police team waited near the Max Hospital at Saket and arrested them, recovering 20 injections from their car, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Thakur said.

In a separate case, the Delhi Police also arrested a 20-year-old college student for allegedly duping a man of Rs 36,000 on the pretext of providing him Remdesivir injections used to treat Covid-19.

Sagar Chaurasia, a resident of Baba Farid Pur in Delhi's West Patel Nagar, is a B.Com final year student and worked for a person named Akram Khan who is also involved in the case and absconding, they said. Chaurasia was arrested after a complaint was filed at the Dabri police station on May 15 by a resident of Palam.