- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
At a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across India with people dying because of a crumbling health infrastructure, evil minds are making it worse. Businesses to fool and fleece people who are in dire needs of help are flourishing and the authorities are repeatedly appealing to people to not to fall into such traps.
AFP came up with a report on Friday, June 4, saying the unscrupulous rackets are selling fake medicines, recycled protective equipment and even fire extinguishers disguised as oxygen cylinders. The report cited the tragic case of Komal Taneja’s family. Her husband Chandrakant perished while gasping for breath at his home in New Delhi in May after the oxygen cylinder they ordered on the internet by paying $200 never arrived. Describing the tragedy in details, Komal told AFP: “Then we came across a contact online promising an oxygen cylinder delivery within an hour of making the 15,000 rupees payment. When we did, they asked for more money, and then stopped responding.” The hapless family ordered for the life-saving device after two private hospitals demanded a million rupees (almost USD 13,000) in advance to provide a bed for a week.
Investigators have told AFP that many scammers have focused on the Covid-19 situation to exploit people desperately looking for relief for their near ones. Narang, a private firm executive based in Noida, told the news outlet that he landed in a sophisticated scam while looking for oxygen cylinder for a sick friend. “I came across a link for a supplier which looked genuine, and even had a catalogue with different models. The prices too were competitive,” he told AFP. But the device never reached him.
Several hundreds of probes launched
Taneja and Narang are not the only people who have gone through such an experience. It was been reported that at least 600 investigations have been launched by police in New Delhi alone in recent weeks to trace people cheating those in need for oxygen, hospital beds and drugs. A number of scammers have been caught, including a gang that made and sold fake doses of antiviral drug Remdesivir for up to 40 times the price for which it is available in the market. Another gang was found repainting fire extinguishers as oxygen cylinders while there were others who posed as doctors offering hospital beds that never existed.
Shibesh Singh, a senior police officer in Delhi told AFP that the criminals saw in the pandemic a great opportunity to make an entry. He said the police can only urge people to be extra careful when approaching contacts online for help.
It is not for the first time that India has seen scammers making use of tragedies to make monetary profit. In 2019 end, the Northern Indian state of Haryana shocked the nation after it was reported that hundreds of villagers in Haryana were declared dead in road accidents to claim insurance.
