Three accused of selling govt’s Pfizer vaccine sent to police custody

A city court on Thursday remanded three suspects, including a former army officer, for interrogation over allegedly administering stolen Covid-19 vaccines to public at a price.

The South judicial magistrate sent Major (retd) Amanullah Sultan, Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Zeeshan on physical remand in police custody for one day and sought a progress report from the investigation officer on Friday (today). According to the investigation officer (IO), Sultan is the owner of a healthcare company, which illegally administered stolen Pfizer vaccines to people for Rs15,000 per dose.

He added that one of the suspects, Ali, was an employee of the firm and police had seized a box of syringes, vials, specimen collection swabs and empty vaccination cards from his possession.

The third suspect, Zeeshan, was a government vaccinator who was apprehended on the basis of information provided by Ali. The IO said the vaccines were stolen from a government vaccination centre and according to initial information, the suspects had administered them to at least 60 people at their homes in the city.

The officer requested the court to grant him custody of the suspects for two weeks to complete the investigation and trace their accomplices. The judge, however, approved only one-day remand.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of South Drug Inspector Ghulam Ali who claimed that he had reliable information about a company involved in stealing Pfizer vaccines from the government and selling them to public.

The drug inspector contacted Ali and agreed to purchase a Pfizer vaccine from him in a meeting at a restaurant on July 25 in Saddar where police nabbed the suspect. The case has been registered under the sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, and Section 30 of the Drug Act.