PHC Doctor and aide arrested by Annapoorneshwarinagar police for stealing and selling covishield vaccine illegally in Bengaluru:

Pramesh S Jain

The West Division police of Annaporneshwarinagar police on Thursday arrested a 25-year-old doctor and her associate for administering covishield vaccine to people at a house for a price of Rs 500 per shot .

The accused has been identified as,Dr. Pushpitha,25,medical officer of Manjunath Nagar Primary Health center and her associate Prema,34,a homemaker from ITI Layout.

Dr.Pushpita used to get the vials from the PHC center and vaccinate people at the house of Prema after she collected Rs 500 from each person.

DCP West,Dr.Sanjeev M Patil said,The Covid in Bengaluru city has showed many unexpected heroes from all corners of life likewise we have seen dark side also.

Among one such incident the vaccine that were to be given to a people in PHC center in Manjunathnagar were traced to place in ITI layout in Annapoorneshwarinagar police station limits.

A medical officer working at PHC centre Manjunathnagar,Dr.Pushpitha aged 25 years along with prema aged 34 years a resident of ITI layout were running a joint vaccination programme in Prema’s house.

Our witnesses have given information that this private vaccination programme was going on since 23rd of April and this used to happen almost everyday after 4 o clock in the evening.

Upon inquiry it is found that the doctor used to procure this vials from the PHC centre Manjunathnagar campus and would give to people here.

Who would be called by Prema our team has secured a Frozen vials carrier,vials used and unused,Syringes used and unused from the house of this accused Prema he added.

Senior officer,told media persons,our Annapoorneshwarinagar police inspector Lohith received a credible information about the private vaccination programme is being administered in a house in ITI layout.

As soon as the information was passed to Inspector he immediately passed the information to his senior officers and the senior officers instructed the Inspector to take all necessary measures and nab the miscreants.

Based on able guidance of DCP West, Dr Sanjeev M Patil,Inspector Lohith turned himself as decoy and visited the house to take a vaccine shot at their house.

After visiting the house and after confirmation that in the house they are administering vaccination illegally and are collecting Rs.500 for each shots from people who comes to take a vaccine shot at their house.

Based on this the Inspector detained them and conducted a search at their house and found used and unused vials and syringe in their possession.

The Inspector and his team arrested the duo and during interrogation the accused confessed the crime and it was revealed that the Medical officer used to steal the covishield vaccine from her center.

Dr.Pushpita was working in the PHC for the last six months and said to have vaccinated many people in the last few days.

We suspect that Dr.Pushpitha forged the records to steal the vials and store it at the house of Prema in a frozen vaccine carrier.

The vaccines are sanctioned by the government to the PHC centre to give it to the people who have registered at the government portals.

But this medical officer has cheated the government and to earn easy money and become rich in short time has landed in police net and is cooling her heels in jail.

The police have taken the duo into custody for questioning to ascertain about the racket and possible involvement of others he added.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP West,Dr.Sanjeev M Patil,ACP,UD Krishna Kumar,PI,Lohith and his team for the commendable job done by them in nabbing the duo and busting the private vaccination programme running illegally in house and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.