Mylan Laboratories, a global pharmaceutical manufacturing company alongside Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been booked on fraud charges after being found by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police (EOW) inflating prices contrary to the initially agreed prices.
By Kuda Pembere
According to Indian press reports, the EOW registered a First Information Report (FIR) citing irregularities in the purchase of Remdesivir injections leading to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the contractor, Mylan, who supplied the injections.
Mylan Laboratories was awarded the contract to supply 28,000 vials of Remdesivir. The contract was awarded by the Municipal Corporation on April 7, 2021. Mylan Laboratory had bid for it at Rs 650.75 (US$7.80) per vial. Only 19,000 vials have been provided. But no records were found regarding the supply of the remaining 9,000 vials, the complaint states. Subsequently, the same company was awarded the contract at Rs 1,568 (US$18.80) per vial.
The FIR mentioned a fraud of Rs 5.96 crore (US$ 714,511.62) which may go up during the course of investigation. A senior EOW official confirmed the development.
“We will soon summon the BMC officials concerned for questioning,” said an EOW officer.
The financial irregularities in the purchase of Remdesivir injections emerged when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was carrying out thorough investigation in connection with the money laundering in BMC in their spending in the operations of Covid jumbo centres.
The ED detected irregularities worth Rs 4000 crore and then wrote to EOW highlighting these gross irregularities. Following this, preliminary enquiries were initiated to look into this. After the PE concluded that a congnizable offence was committed, an FIR was lodged by EOW.
The ED may soon register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the matter to probe the money laundering in the said irregularities involving purchase of Remdesivir injections on inflated rates, sources said. The ECIR is a document meant for “identification of a particular case and for departmental convenience” and is “purely an internal document”,
As per BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s allegations, a few weeks ago, he has made a complaint to ED, EOW and income tax about 10,000 Remdesivir injections going missing.
Somaiya claimed that Remdesivir injections were purchased by the BMC’s purchase department in a very non-transparent manner.
