Varanasi. The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested five people from Varanasi's Lanka area and recovered fake COVID vaccine worth Rs 4 crore from their possession.

Additional Director General of Police, STF Amitabh Yash said that on the basis of an information, the STF raided Rohit Nagar in Lanka police station area and recovered a large consignment of Kovid testing kit in addition to fake Covishield and Zykov D vaccine.

Rakesh Thawani, Sandeep Sharma, Lakshya Jawa, Shamsher and Arunesh Vishwakarma have been arrested in this connection. Rakesh, Sandeep and Arunesh are residents of Varanasi while Lakshya is from Delhi and Shamsher is from Ballia.

He said that during interrogation, Rakesh Thawani told that he used to make fake vaccines with the help of Sandeep, Arunesh and Shamsher, which was the responsibility of Lakshya Java to consume it in different states of the country. The police officer said that the interrogation of the miscreants is going on, on the basis of which other members of the gang will be searched. He said that the value of the recovered goods is estimated to be around Rs.