Mumbai: Did race for credit result in vaccination scam in Kandivli society?

A day after midday reported on Kandivlirsquos Hiranandani societyrsquos suspicious vaccination drive a society member delivered an anonymous letter titled lsquoActual Storyrsquo to this reporter The letter detailed a coverup and alleged a similar vaccination drive at another location organised by the team that visited Hiranandani society It claimed the involvement of two important society office bearers in the driveThe letter claimed that a month ago the residents requested a vaccination camp and one of the officebearers Ashish Mishra claimed he can arrange one with the help of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital to which society members agreed They were told the charges will be Rs 1200 plus Rs 60 towards GSTThe letter written anonymously by a society resident claimed that all arrangements were done verballyThe letter claimed that the camp was organised without taking permission from BMC The biggest mistake it alleged was that committee members did not give approval in writing and everything was based on verbal terms and conditions No receipt was given postvaccination and on the day of the vaccination residents got to know that it was conducted by Shivam hospital in Charkop The letter said that no one was allowed to take pictures or come close to people administering the vaccine It also said that none of the residents had any postvaccine symptomsResidents were told certificates will be updated on the system four to five days later and none of the society members doubted it as it was arranged by a committee memberHowever no update came on CoWIN app and the vaccination team took details in an excel sheet The scam started unravelling when a week or so after vaccination people started demanding certificatesResidents got certificates with heads of different hospitals Nanavati Hospital NESCO COVID Centre and Lifeline Hospital from June 8 Residents started raining questions but did not get a clear replyAgent summonedThe letter claimed that committee members were pressured by residents to summon agent Mahendra Singh who conducted the drive Mishra was asked to call Singh on June 13His questioning revealed that he does not belong to Shivam Hospital and he allegedly admitted that he conducted vaccinations of almost 30000 people He said that he bought the vaccines from Shivam hospital at Rs 800dose and sold them for Rs 1200dose He insisted that the vaccines were genuineResidents got in touch with Shivam Hospital to confirm Singhrsquos claim The hospital however said that they donrsquot know him Finally residents approached Kandivli police to file an FIR which was registered on June 14 Representatives of Nanavati Hospital also clarified to the society that they did not generate certificates bearing the hospitalrsquos nameThe letter claimed that Mishra conducted a vaccination drive with Singhrsquos help for over 450 people in Aditya College on June 3 Many of them havenrsquot received a certificateThe letter further claimed that Mishra and another officebearer are backed by a local MLAThe letterrsquos deliveryThis reporter received a call from an unknown number and was told that she will receive the letter through an autorickshaw driver The autorickshaw driver said he did not know who gave him the letter The caller again contacted the reporter through an unknown number and was scared to reveal their identity Cheated says officebearerWhile one of the officebearers was not available for comment Mishra first told midday to contact the societyrsquos chairman Umesh Shah Later he refuted the allegations made in the letter and said ldquoWe were cheated It was done by the Kokilaben Hospital staffrdquoKokilaben Hospital speaksIn an official statement Dr Santosh Shetty executive director and CEO Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute stated on Wednesday ldquoCertain individuals posing as representatives of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute KDAH have been involved in unauthorised Covid19 vaccination drives After a preliminary investigation it has been discovered that Rajesh Pandey employee of our hospital has illegally and without authorisation been involved in this fraudulent activity Rajesh Pandey deceitfully misused the name of the hospital in concert with external individuals and institutions who are not connected in any way with KDAH The vaccination drives where Rajesh Pandey was involved in his personal capacity were done without the knowledge of KDAHRajesh Pandey is not involved in any aspect of the Covid19 vaccination programme at KDAH and had no access to CoWINWe have terminated his services have reported his misdemeanours and are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigationrdquolsquoGive report in 48 hrsrsquoThe BMC on Wednesday ordered an enquiry into the vaccination drive and appealed to housing societies to ensure all formalities are done including their registration and arrange a proper Memorandum of Understanding MoU before organising a vaccination driveAdditional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani appointed Vishwas Shankarwar deputy municipal commissioner zone seven to conducted an enquiry A report is to be submitted within 48 hoursA BMC official said ldquoEach private vaccination centre is given a registration number by CoWIN Citizens and housing societies should keep it in mind and contact the ward medical health officer for a recheck before appointing any private immunisation centrerdquoHe added that an MoU with the organisation concerned is required Identity cards of the vaccination staff should be verified and beneficiaries should be urged to get digital certificates immediately after vaccination In case of suspicious activity the wardrsquos medical health officer must be contactedMeanwhile on Wednesday 353 students received the second dose of vaccine after the government revised the gap between two doses for them Of the total 68565 people who received a shot 51119 received it at private centresOf 68565 shots administered 8401 were given to senior citizens 13132 were administered to people between 45 to 59 years and 44694 given to people between 18 to 44 years 132 beneficiaries were lactating mothers and 403 were international studentsInputs by Prajakta Kasale390No of residents lsquovaccinatedrsquo at Hiranandani vax drive