‘I’m terrified’: Victims describe horror of fake Indian vaccine scam that lured in thousands

Police say scammers targeted desperate people at a time when vaccines were in short supply, injecting upwards of 2,500 people with an unknown substance. Shweta Sharma reports

NGO volunteers showcase a mannequin dressed in PPE on a cycle rickshaw during an awareness campaign against the spread of Covid-19 in Chennai, India (EPA)

Rushabh Kamdar was thrilled when he found out he would be among the first people to receive a Covid-19 vaccine in his housing complex in Mumbai, after struggling for days to book a slot on the government’s official portal.

Describing it as a “blessing”, the 25-year-old immediately signed up for himself and his brother and says he didn’t give its legitimacy a second thought, as the inoculations were being organised by his resident’s welfare organisation. On 30 June, he and 390-odd neighbours received an injection – just not a Covid vaccine.

Officials from the housing complex only started to investigate what had happened when they did not receive their vaccine certificates for several days. After contacting the authorities about the delay, they found out they were the latest victims of a huge, months-long scam.

“More than a month after getting the injection I don’t know what was injected into our blood and what is going to happen to us. I am terrified it could have a long-term effect,” Kamdar tells The Independent.

He says that in hindsight it was unusual that no one was allowed to take pictures of themselves getting the shot, and later it was suspicious when not a single recipient had pain in their arms or any other side effects. Finally the alarm was raised when most residents had not received their certificates even 15 days after getting the “jab”.

“It was chaotic, everyone was asking, ‘Where are the certificates?’ When some of us got the certificate, they were all dated wrong and the names of the hospitals were different for everyone,” he says.

People wait for their turn to be inoculated with a dose of the Sputnik vaccine (AFP via Getty Images)

The young businessman from the Hiranandani Heritage housing complex in Mumbai was among more than 2,000 people in Maharashtra state who, police say, were injected as part of the scam. The substance that was used is still not known, but police suspect it was likely to have been a simple saline solution.

It is the biggest vaccine scam busted so far in the country, with 14 people including registered doctors arrested.

The scam was conducted in 12 bogus centres in the span of two months from April to June in India’s relatively well-off financial hub and its outskirts. Mumbai has been hit particularly bad in both of the country’s Covid waves – Maharashtra state alone has recorded more than 124,000 coronavirus deaths, a number which experts believe to be a significant understatement.

The fraudsters took advantage of the rush to get vaccinated as the second wave spiralled out of control in April, feeding on people’s desperation as well as a chronic shortage of doses available through official vaccine centres. India has since promised to ramp up production and vaccinate all adults by the end of this year, but is still not on track to do so.

Police say the scammers masqueraded as private sector vaccine providers – private hospitals have been allowed to purchase and deliver vaccines in India since the first phase of inoculations targeting frontline workers was completed.

They charged up to Rs 1,250 (£12) per jab, about 50 per cent more than genuine private providers, raking in a total in excess of Rs 2 million (£19,300).

The suspects are believed to have utilised empty and used vials from a hospital that had actually carried out a vaccination drive, to make it seem more genuine. Investigations continue into what they actually injected into people, police say.

A woman breaks down as she prays before the cremation of a relative who died of Covid in Guwahati (AP)

Another Mumbai resident, 47-year-old Hitesh Patel, tells The Independent his 18-year-old son was also a victim of the scam.

He says the family’s trust has been “shattered”, adding that “we will think twice before going to a private vaccine centre [in future]”.

“My son was shocked and agitated after discovering that he had been cheated. It was a well-organised crime,” says Patel.

As well as facing potential criminal charges, Mumbai-based lawyer Siddharth Chandrashekhar has filed a public interest lawsuit against the accused doctors. Hearing the initial plea, the High Court of Bombay described it as “really shocking” and “heartbreaking” that people were duped out of their money at such a time of crisis for the country.

Though one of the most high profile, this is far from the only example where people’s money and lives have been put at risk by those happy to feed off the public desperation wrought by the pandemic.

Residents queue up to get themselves inoculated with a dose of ‘Covishield’, the AstraZeneca vaccine (AFP via Getty Images)

When the capital Delhi was desperate for medical oxygen, police discovered scammers were selling fire extinguishers as oxygen cylinders, while others took advance payment for oxygen and then disappeared. The rise of the black market as the healthcare system collapsed led to a rush of fake medicines and used personal protective equipment being sold.

At the peak of the crisis, the country of 1.3 billion was reporting 415,000 new infections in a single day, and more than 400,000 people have died in India since the beginning of the pandemic. The brutal second wave, which lasted just a few months, accounts for half of those deaths.

The country has vaccinated 360 million people with at least one dose and 65 million have been fully inoculated, making up just 4.8 per cent of the population, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.