A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni said that the BMC might first have to check the victims for antibodies and then work out the modalities to inoculate them as, in many cases, the victims were already given vaccine certificates. The Bombay High Court has asked the State and BMC to file separate affidavits enumerating how they plan to deal with the 2053 victims of unauthorised Covid-19 vaccination camps in Mumbai and its steps to avoid such incidents in the future.
The Bench pointed out that people were defrauded despite the BMC’s SOPs for vaccination camps in societies. The court was hearing a PIL filed by advocate and activist - Siddharth Chandrashekhar – on the difficulties faced by citizens in getting the Covid-19 vaccine.
During the last hearing, the court expressed shock at the type of fraud committed on people, victims of fake vaccination camps across the western suburbs of Mumbai. Chief Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare informed the court that they had filed a status report. Four separate FIRs have been registered regarding the fake camps held at different places. The document, however, is confidential as investigations are underway. He later informed the Court that there are 2053 victims of unauthorised Covid-19 vaccine fraud.
Advocate Anita Castellino for the petitioner said that the doctors should be asked to check the victims for antigens. The bench further noted that modalities would have been worked out to get the victims vaccinated after it was informed that a person could not be issued more than one vaccine certificate. Government pleader Geeta Shastri informed the court that the State needed more time to file their affidavit.
According to a report by India Today, the first FIR was registered by the Kandivali Police on June 17, 2021 for an unauthorised vaccination drive at Hiranandani Housing society for 390 people on May 30. Six people have been arrested in the case so far. The second FIR was filed on June 19, 2021, at Versova police station by Matchbox pictures after the same group organised a drive for 151 employees.
The third FIR in this case was registered at Khar police station by an executive producer of Tips Industries Ltd against the same accused for organising an unauthorised vaccination drive for 206 of its employees on June 3 and 4, in Khar (W). The same group was also accused in the fourth FIR regarding the vaccination of 213 people at Aditya College.
