According to the New York Post, thousands of people in India, who are experiencing extreme devastation due to catastrophic amounts of deaths caused by the coronavirus in the South Asian country, have been given fake COVID-19 vaccines in a twisted scam that charged people money in desperate need.
“They were using saline water and injecting it,” said Vishal Thakur, a senior official of the Mumbai police department, according to CNN. “Every fake vaccination camp that they held, they were doing this.”
According to Thakur, an estimated amount of 2,500 people received fake COVID-19 vaccines at 12 sites outside Mumbai.
The culprits, which included medical professionals, charged between $10 and $17 per dose, authorities said, according to the New York Times.
The con artists stole about $28,000, CNN reported.
Thakur reportedly stated that 14 people had been arrested for “alleged cheating, attempts at culpable homicide, and criminal conspiracy.”
It has been reported that COVID-19 infections and deaths quickly escalated in India between April and May, with more than 180,000 people dying from the disease.
India documented more than 400,000 deaths in total, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
According to the New York Post, “The highly transmittable Delta variant or B1.617.2, which the Center for Disease Control in June labeled a “variant of concern,” first emerged in India in December.”
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