Kandivli housing society: Scamsters had access to main vaccine portal

The Kandivli police have arrested five people for allegedly giving fake vaccines to 390 residents of Hiranandani Heritage society in Kandivli West The mastermind doctor of the operation who belongs to an unknown hospital from Charkop is absconding The accused used the unique ID and password of a hospital to make valid vaccination certificates for the people they lsquovaccinatedrsquo at the campsThe arrested accused with the Kandivli police on FridayThe arrested people have been identified as Mahendra Kuldip Singh 39 Sanjay Gupta 34 Chandan Singh 32 Nitin Mode 32 and Karim Ali 21 All admitted to organising nine vaccination camps at various places Police have started locating the societies where they held the vaccination campsAccording to the police the main accused Mahendra dropped out of school in Std IX and was working in an events company With the help of an unknown doctor he started approaching societies for vaccination camps However he did not have permission from the BMC or any licence for the same During each camp no medical officer was present during vaccination Police are investigating if the Covishield bottles used in the vaccination were expired since their seals were brokenAn officer said ldquoThe main accused is an unknown doctor from a Charkopbased hospital who approached Mahendra and set up the nine camps in various societies colleges and production houses After Hiranandani residents filed a written complaint we registered an FIR We found that these accused have access to an ID and password on CoWIN using which they can print vaccine certificates with anyonersquos detailsrdquoAdditional Commissioner of Police north region Dilip Sawant right and Deputy Commissioner of Police Vishal Thakur during a press conference on FridayHow was CoWIN accessedA civic source told midday that each hospital conducting vaccination has its own unique ID and password on the CoWIN portal Accused Karim employed at a Charkopbased hospital was tasked with transporting vaccine bottles from the BMC to vaccination centres Later he also started making entries for all vaccines and issuing certificates He remembered the ID and password and shared them with the mastermind and Mahendra At the end of each vaccination camp those who administered the lsquovaccinesrsquo would give the duo the list of beneficiaries and they would enter their names and generate certificates In this manner police suspect the group may have details of multiple hospitalsrsquo IDs and corresponding passwordsThe group used scanned copies of the beneficiariesrsquo Aadhaar cards to make the entries Residents of Hiranandani Heritage received certificates made in this manner While the certificates have the stamp of authenticity having been issued through an official portal the vaccination may be fake A source in the police said that the scam has revealed how CoWIN itself may be at risk as the mastermind continues to have the ID and password ldquoWe are trying to change the ID and password used by the accused with the help of the BMCrsquos vaccination departmentrdquo the source saidThe accused have been booked under 268 public nuisance 270 act known to spread infection or disease dangerous to life 274 adulteration of drugs 419 impersonation 420 cheating 465 forgery 470 forgery and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and of the IT Act All five accused have been remanded to police custody till June 24The accused charged Rs 1260 including GST for the Covishield vaccine The society members started having doubts when they did not face any side effects Hiranandani beneficiaries collectively lost around Rs 450 lakhIt was Mahendra who approached Hiranandani Heritage Residents Welfare Association HHRWS a managing body representing three buildings in the residential complex at Kandivli West He told them that he would set up a vaccination camp aided by Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital Andheri and accordingly on May 30 390 people received Covishield doses However they were not registered on CoWIN and a week later started getting messages about vaccination certificates in the name of different hospitals like Nanavati and Lifeline and the civicrun NESCO Jumbo COVID Centre which does not even conduct vaccination in societiesRs 450LAmount lost by Hiranandani Heritage residents