Odisha man booked for making fake Covid-19 vaccine with 'secret' formula

A 32-year-old man has

been booked in Odishas Bargarh district for allegedly manufacturing fake COVID-19 vaccines, police said on Saturday.

A case was filed against Prahallad Bisi, a class 7 dropout, after the officials of the Drug Control Administration and police raided his house in Rushuda village in the Bheden Police station area on Friday, they said.

Twelve bottles of the fake injections, labels and syringes were seized in the raid, they added.

Drug Inspector of Bargarh Sashmita Dehury said she came to know from a person that Bisi was claiming that he had made a vaccine for COVID-19 and wanted to sell it in the market.

A case under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act has been registered against him in the Bheden police station, the official said.

"We have seized injection vials with a label reading 'COVID-19 vaccine' from the possession of the accused," Dehury said.

"If required we will send those glass vials for testing after taking permission from the court," she added.

However, Bisi did not sell the fake vaccine to anyone so far, she said.

The Drug Inspector of Sambalpur, S Mallick, who was also present during the raid, said, "When we asked him how he made the vaccine and what the ingredients were, he told us that it was top-secret and he would not reveal it."

"We also found in his house some fake injections for the treatment of infertility. Labels reading Ovu Stop was there on those fake injections, Mallick said, adding that he had made the injection by mixing tetanus toxoid, cefotaxime sodium and castor oil.

Bisi claimed the "COVID-19 vaccine" he made was "100 per cent successful".

"It is a combination of different allopathy medicines," he said.