New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) A man has been arrested from Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of providing them Remdesivir injections, used in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, police said on Monday.

The accused has been identified as Aman Singh (25), a resident of Rewa, they said.

The victim, Neeraj Kumar Tiwari, approached the police, alleging that after coming across a phone number on the social media, he reached out to the man as he was in need of six injections for his father-in-law, a senior police officer said.

The accused demanded Rs 5,000 per injection and asked Tiwari to pay 40 per cent in advance via UPI, police said, adding that the complainant paid Rs 8,000.

After getting the money, he stopped picking up Tiwari's calls, the officer said.

"A raid was conducted in Rewa district on the basis of technical surveillance and the accused was apprehended," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said.

It was noticed that the accused had opened a bank account in another name and the account had a balance of Rs 7,83,968, the DCP said, adding that his mobile phone has been seized and the bank account freezed.

He opened a bank account in the name of another person and linked it with UPI. He also floated another mobile number on the social media posing as a seller of Remdesivir injection, police said.

He first asked for an advance from the person who contacted him and stopped responding after the amount was transferred in his account, the police said.

In another case, police arrested 53-year-old Anuj Kumar Anand, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, for allegedly cheating people by promising them to provide Remdesivir injections, officials said.

The police claimed to have solved four cases of cheating with his arrest.

After getting a tip-off about the accused, head constable Munesh called him posing as a customer.

The accused asked him to deposit half the account. On the basis of account and mobile details, the accused was identified. Police conducted raids and apprehended him," Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Anto Alphonse said.

During interrogation, Anand disclosed that he worked a travel agent and due to the lockdown, he lost his source of income, police said.

On April 21, after visiting Moolchand Hosptal, he noticed that there was extreme shortage of Remdesivir injections and oxygen cylinders and people were ready to pay higher prices, the DCP said.

He planned to dupe people and sent massages from his mobile phone regarding availability of Remdesivir injections at Rs 25,000. When peoples started calling him, he asked them to deposit half the amount in his account. The accused did not provide the injection to even a single person, police said.

Police checked his phone and found that he has contacted around 200 people. He assured them of providing the injections and received half payment in advance, they said.

On April 26 and 27, he received around Rs 3 lakh. Many complaints are also pending against him at Faridabad and Gurgaon, police added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)