Two Health Ministry staff among five held for duping people of ₹15 crore

Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing arrested the accused

Five people, including two Union Health Ministry staff, have been arrested for allegedly duping people of ₹15 crore on the pretext of getting them work-related orders for transportation of Covid vaccines to different States, police said on Sunday.

Hermenn Sabherwal, 43, Govind Tulsian, 52, Diprana Tiwari, 32, Trilok Singh, 53, and Mrityunjoy Roy, 44, were nabbed by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, they said.

Police said Mr. Singh is employed as a Multi Tasking Staff (MTS) at the Health Ministry on a permanent basis while Mr. Tiwari is also an MTS but on a contract basis.

"Mr. Roy was on deputation with Minister of Home Affairs from SSB and was a reception officer in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at Nirman Bhawan," a police statement said.

According to the police, a probe was initiated after several complaints were received from a person named Sunil Kaushik and others where the victims alleged that they had been duped of Rs 15 crore on pretext of getting them work orders for transportation of Covid vaccines.

In all the complaints, the victims narrated the same modus operandi, police said.

The police said all the complainants claimed that they were made to sit inside the conference room of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in order to execute the work order for transportation of Covid vaccines, police said.