Humanity is suffering, yet people being defrauded: Bombay High Court asks State, BMC to take action against fake COVID-19 vaccination drives

Terming it a "serious issue pertaining to lives of people," the Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to take notice of fake COVID-19 vaccination scams..A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni also asked the authorities to implement a State-wide policy to safeguard citizens against possible future scams..During today's hearing, the Court was informed of multiple instances where societies and educational institutions were being scammed.Certain persons were purportedly claiming to be attached to private hospitals and were holding COVID-19 vaccination drives with fake vaccines. The scam came to light after certain vaccination beneficiaries could not get their certificates verified..The Bench expressed concern over the fact that certain persons seemed to be making money out of tricking people, and directed the State to take strict actions against the accused."This is a new way of defrauding people. The unfortunate part is even in current times when entire humanity is suffering, people are committing fraud," Justice Kulkarni remarked."Imagine plight of those people who have been vaccinated with plain water and not original vaccine," he added..Chief Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare informed the Court that certain persons had been booked by the police after a fake vaccination drive was detected in a Mumbai suburb.The Court noted that this was a singular incident and more incidents had occurred in different parts of the suburbs, including in an educational institution. It directed Thakare to disclose the action that had been taken against the persons booked..The Bench asked the State and civic authorities to keep a track of the vaccines that were being released for administration. It also suggested that BMC could direct a medical officer of each ward to keep track of vaccination drives being conducted privately in their respective wards..Meanwhile, while hearing the plea seeking door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination, the Court was informed that the government was yet to take a decision on the draft guidelines suggested by the Task Force for carrying out vaccination of elderly and bed-ridden persons. The said draft guidelines were yet to be approved. Appreciating the efforts taken by the State, the Bench granted it one more week to come to a decision on the draft guidelines.