The duo held recently for mimicking the voice of Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar in an attempt to get an officer transferred in Mantralaya, allegedly also procured remdesivir from hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad in April-May this year similarly. The police said the doctors and the hospital staff, who panicked hearing the ‘voice of the leader,’ handed over the drugs to the accused and his associate, who later sold them in the black market for an exorbitant price.

The duo’s—Vikas Gurav, 51, and Kiran Kakde, 26—accomplice in another case where they earlier impersonated the veteran politician has also been arrested. An Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) official told the Killa court, “Vikas called in Sharad Pawar’s voice and took remdesivir injections from people associated with the medical field and sold them to the needy for Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000.” The accused told the cops that posing as Pawar, he would tell the doctors that he was sending his party worker to collect the drugs. He would get an associate to collect them.