In the first case of police arresting persons accused of black marketing doses of Remdesivir anti-viral drug in Madhya Pradesh, the Crime Branch of Bhopal Police nabbed four such people, including a doctor, on Saturday and recovered four injections from them.

As per the photographs provided by the police of the four confiscated injections, the brand name on each vial is written as ‘Remivir 100’.

According to information available on the internet, ‘Remivir 100’ is the brand name of the Remdesivir injection produced by Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company ‘Eskayef Pharmaceuticals’.

According to police, they had received a tip off that some persons were trying to sell Remdesivir injections clandestinely at very high rates of up to Rs 18,000 per injection. The Crime Branch team contacted the sellers as decoy customers. After a deal was struck, a police constable in plain clothes met the seller at the Islami Gate in Shahjehanabad area of the old city.

When the seller handed over an injection to the constable, the police team nabbed the accused.

According to Crime Branch SP Gopal Dhakad, the seller has been identified as Sami khan (30), a resident of Arif Nagar in Shahjehanabad area. He was trying to sell one Remdesivir injection for Rs 18,000. Only yesterday, the union government fixed the price of Remdesivir between Rs 800 to Rs 3,490 per injection.

Police said that three accomplices of Sami Khan were also arrested. They have been identified as Akhlakh Khan (24), resident of DIG Bungalow area in Bhopal, Noman Khan (30), resident of Kabitpura in Shahjehanabad area of Bhopal, and Dr Ehsan Khan (22), resident of MIG Colony in Karond area of Bhopal.

The accused told police that Noman Khan had initially got the injections. From him, the other three bought them for Rs 7,000 each and then were trying to sell them off up to Rs 18,000 each.

Sources said the police were also trying to find out if these confiscated injections are from the 863 Remdesivir injections stolen from the Government Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal on Friday night. If they are from that lot, then the police might also be able to crack that theft case, in which the cops are otherwise empty handed in their investigations so far.