Pak police arrest man, register case against retired Army officer in Covid-19 embezzlement racket

Karachi, July 26

Pakistani police have arrested a man and registered a case against a retired Army officer for their involvement in embezzling Covid-19 vaccine doses and illegally administering them to people at homes in return for money.

A Karachi Police officer told the media that when the main culprit Muhammad Ali was arrested along with boxes of syringes, vaccination vials and cards and specimen collection swabs, he claimed that he was an employee of ‘Sultan Madad Private Limited’, whose owner was former army officer Major (retd) Amanullah Sultan.

“He claimed that he worked as the company’s field officer, while the owner provided him and others with the apparently stolen vaccines which they used to administer to citizens at their homes in return for monetary compensation,” said South SSP Zubair Nazeer Shaikh.

This money was paid to Major (retd) Sultan, as per the FIR. The vaccines were apparently embezzled from a vaccination centre in Karachi and Shaikh said they suspected that others could be involved in this racket.

Ali was arrested on the complaint of a drug inspector who had also helped the police trap him by posing as someone who wanted to get vaccinated at home.

The suspect agreed to administer the jab at his home and told him that he would meet him at a restaurant in Saddar on July 25.

The complainant said he, along with health officials and a police party, reached the spot where the suspect was taken into custody.

Earlier in March, police had arrested a person who posed as a doctor and was selling fake vaccines for the treatment of coronavirus in Karachi’s posh Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood. PTI