Police in India initiated an investigation into a phony COVID-19 vaccination racket after 2,000 people were vaccinated with fake COVID vaccine doses in Mumbai and another 1,000, some of whom were crippled, in Kolkata.
According to Mumbai authorities, around 2,000 people who thought they were being vaccinated were injected with a saline solution.
Police said during a news conference that ten persons had been arrested, including two physicians from a private hospital in the financial hub, with the scammers targeting residents of an upscale housing complex in one case.
"We (later) learned that this syndicate was organizing eight more camps," Vishwas Patil, joint commissioner for the law and order division, said.
Police have recovered Rs 12.4 crore ($16,700) in cash which was "fraudulently obtained" by the accused.
Meanwhile, police in Kolkata have detained a guy posing as a civil official with a master's degree in genetics who allegedly ran up to eight fake vaccination camps.
At least 250 disabled and transgender people were injected at one site, according to police, and almost 1000 people may have received fake injections across the city.
According to Kolkata official Atin Ghosh, the seized vials were falsely labeled as containing the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, branded in India as Covishield.
"The Covishield label was discovered to be placed over another label, that of Amikacin Sulphate 500 mg, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections of the bones, brain, lungs, urinary tract, and blood," Ghosh told AFP.
The scam came to light after an actress and politician, Mimi Chakraborty, who received a shot at one of the camps to raise awareness, became suspicious and alerted police.
The suspect was found with two fake ID cards, one for an information ministry official and the other for a municipal commissioner. His car sported Kolkata government stickers.
Many of them who had been injected, according to Debashis Barui, a Kolkata health official, are now "panicking" about the prospective negative effects.
"In the event of an emergency, civic authorities would set up medical camps in the vicinity to care for those who have received fake shots," Barui told AFP.
Ruma Sikdar, 35, one of them, said she had been feeling drowsy and had pain in her arm.
"What concerns me is how to receive the real dose before the third wave," the homemaker explained.
"We didn't think this could happen in the during a pandemic," said student Debjit Majumdar, who was also given a fake vaccine.