The Bombay High Court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by Manish Tripathi, an accused in a case related to alleged unauthorised vaccination drives in Mumbai, Live Law reported. Beneficiaries were reportedly given fake vaccines at such drives.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni also asked the city’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, to inform the court by next week about measures undertaken for those who were duped.

“There are over 2,000 people who have been duped...How do you propose to vaccinate them?” the court asked the civic body.

“We don’t know what was administered,” Senior Advocate Anil Sakhare, appearing for the BMC, responded. He added that those who received the purported vaccines will be tested for antibodies against the coronavirus disease after 15 days. “They can come to us or get it done privately.”

Advocate Anita Shekhar-Castellino, representing the petitioner, contended that those scheduled to go abroad need to know whether they received fake jabs and have to get vaccinated again.

“This appears to be a state failure,” the court said in response, according to PTI. “Why doesn’t the corporation think of testing [for antibodies]? What are you thinking of doing for the unfortunate people, you must tell us on Thursday.”

Sakhare also submitted to the court that the standard operating procedures for private Covid-19 vaccination camps for housing societies and offices will be finalised by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra government counsel Advocate Deepak Thakare told the court that seven FIRs have so far been registered in connection with the unauthorised vaccine drive at the Hiranandani Heritage housing society, where close to 400 residents were duped after paying Rs 4.56 lakh to the organisers. Thirteen people have been arrested, Thakare said, adding that the investigation was still on.

The court then directed Thakare to tell the investigating officers in the case not to spare anyone involved in the alleged scam. “There might be [a] big fish yet to be identified,” the court said. “They must be identified and should not be spared. Tell the police the investigation must be proper and no one should be left out.”

The matter will next be heard on July 1.

Alleged fake vaccination camps

During a hearing last week on a public interest litigation seeking the court’s intervention to resolve problems faced by citizens in securing vaccination slots on the CoWIN portal, Advocate Anita Shekhar-Castellino submitted news reports of fake vaccine drives in Kandivali, Versova and Khar to the court.

Responding to queries from the court, Thakare had said that there were as many as 2,053 victims of the alleged vaccine fraud. The court then asked the Maharashtra government and the BMC to frame a policy to avoid unauthorised vaccination drives.