Assets of 2 bizmen who sold fake Remdesivir attached

New Delhi: Assets worth Rs 1.04 crore of two Gujarat-based businessmen, who allegedly sold "fake" Remdesivir injections during the second wave of the Covid pandemic last year, have been attached under the anti-money laundering law, the ED said on Tuesday.

Kaushal Mahendra Bhai Vora and Punit Gunvantlal Shah manufactured fake injections of the anti-viral drug at a farmhouse-cum-manufacturing facility in Surat and sold them in Madhya Pradesh and some other states, the agency said. "The accused sold fake Remdesivir injections to various vendors who further sold the same to needy retail customers at exorbitant prices. In some cases, the injections were directly sold to retail customers who were identified by the accused persons through social media platforms during the peak of the second wave of COVID-19," the ED said in a statement.

Also, fake Remdesivir injections were sold through vendors who were already in the business of supplying medical drugs and even to hospitals treating coronavirus patients, the agency said. Huge number of fake Remdesivir injections were purchased and injected to various patients at "exorbitant prices" by a hospital based in Madhya Pradesh, the ED probe found.