The Calcutta Medical College and Hospital has started an inquiry following allegations that many vials of tocilizumab, a medicine used to treat Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms, have been stolen.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said at a news conference on Wednesday that the health department and the hospital would probe the matter. “The health department and the medical college have enough powers. They will look into the matter. I will not take any political stand. This is a legal thing,” she said.

The allegations surfaced after two audio clips about alleged illegal removal of tocilizumab vials began circulating on social media.

In one of the clips, two women, one of them identifying herself as “CCU (critical care unit) sister”, are heard talking about the removal of 26 tocilizumab injections. The “CCU sister” asks the other woman to issue receipts for the vials.

The second clip, too, features two women. One of them tells the other that the matter has been discussed among the “opor mohol (upper echelons)”. The woman mentions the name of a Trinamul MLA, who she says knows about the removal of the drug.

Metro has not verified the authenticity of the audio clips.

“We have formed a committee to investigate the allegations. The committee will find out whether the injections were used to treat patients in the hospital or not,” Manju Banerjee, the principal of Calcutta Medical College, told Metro on Wednesday.

Besides the audio clips, a number of “specimen examination forms” with names of patients and “tocilizumab” written on them are circulating on social media. The words “Department of Pathology, Medical College” are printed at the top of the forms.

The Telegraph has not verified the authenticity of the forms.

A vial of tocilizumab costs Rs 40,000. A Covid-19 patient with severe symptoms is administered the drug only once, said a doctor.

The state health depart-ment has prohibited the sale of tocilizumab in the open market after many hospitals found it difficult to procure the drug in the early days of the second wave of Covid infections in Bengal.

“The doctor who prescribes the drug has to sign a requisition form. A senior nurse and the medical superintendent or the principal have to sign it, too,” said a doctor at a state government-run Covid hospital.

As for private hospitals, a doctor has to fill in a form with details of the patient and justify why the patient requires tocilizumab. “The requisition has to be approved by the drug controller,” said an official of a private hospital.