Mumbai: Kandivli society smells a scam in its vaccination drive

Days after they organised a vaccination programme in their housing society nearly 400 members of a Kandivli residential complex suspect they have been conned The society members began doubting the exercise after their certificates showed different hospital names and the hospitals denied holding any such drive Not even a single member showed usual side effects like fever or body ache They have now approached the local MLA to pursue the case with the policeldquoThree people had come to the society for the vaccination We trusted them since it was arranged by the society We were initially told that the drive is being arranged along with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital KDAH But on the day of the vaccination we were told that KDAH couldnrsquot make it so doctors from Shivam Hospital had comerdquo said Gaurav Shah 38 one of the residents of Hiranandani Heritage Kandivli West who got the vaccine The trio who had come for vaccination remains incommunicado he saidShah and his wife Hetal were allegedly given Covishield ldquoI got my certificate on June 12 which says I was administered Covishield by Nanavati Hospital staff Their staff had come to the society on Monday and denied undertaking the vaccination driverdquo said Shah Other members who got vaccinated during the May 30 drive have received certificates carrying the names of Lifeline hospital or NESCO Jumbo Centre a BMCrun centreThe society members have taken to Twitter to expose the socalled scam They said they paid 1260 per dose of what they believed was CovishieldldquoAfter about 10 days when the certificates started rolling out the hospitals mentioned in the certificates were anything but Kokilaben hospital mdash some have Lifeline hospital while most got Nanavati hospital This made the authenticity of the vaccine questionable tweeted Neha Alshi a residentThe members are particularly worried that not even one of the 390 beneficiaries experienced body ache or fever the most common side effects of the vaccine ldquoWe have doubts about whether we were actually given Covishield or was it just glucose or some expiredwaste vaccines How can the CoWin app be manipulated to risk livesrdquo questioned ShahA spokesperson for Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital said ldquoWe wish to clarify that we have not conducted any vaccination camp at the said residential complex We have informed authorities concerned and are lodging a formal complaint regarding the samerdquo Dr Santosh Shetty CEO of KDAH said they were not approached by anyone from the society for the vaccination drive ldquoWe have only conducted vaccination drives in a few societies in Andheri Neither has we nor the society approached us for the vaccination drive that was allegedly held on May 30rdquo said Dr Shetty Lifeline Hospital was unreachable for commentEven Shiv Hospital authorities remained unreachable Suresh Kakani additional municipal commissioner said ldquoI have asked for the vaccination certificates that have NESCO jumbo centrersquos name mentioned as the vaccine facilitator to understand their authenticity I have also asked the NESCO team to investigate the matterrdquoLocal BJP legislator Yogesh Sagar said the residents have sought his help He said ldquoThe police should conduct a thorough probe as such frauds pose a threat to peoplersquos lives I will pursue the matter with the authoritiesrdquo30 MayWhen the society held the vaccination drive