Noida: A day after five organisers of a
vaccine camp at a
Greater Noida housing society were booked for allegedly sourcing
Covaxin doses meant for a health centre in
Aligarh, a second
FIR has been registered against unknown persons for pilfering the
vials out of the health facility.
Police said officials of the primary health centre in Aligarh’s
Naurangabad, including its in-charge, were being questioned about how the Covaxin vials made their way to the vaccine camps in Jaypee Greens, around 100km away.
The second FIR was lodged in Aligarh on Tuesday under sections 381 (theft by a clerk or servant of property in possession of master) and 414 (assisting in concealment of
stolen property) of the IPC following a complaint by the district’s deputy immunisation officer, Sharad Gupta.
Two vaccine camps had been organised without permission at Jaypee Greens on May 21 and 27, when a total of 187 residents had taken shots from the vials meant for the Aligarh facility. The vaccine certificates of all these recipients mention the Naurangabad health centre as their session site.
Investigators have also learnt that a third camp had been organised with due permission from the authorities at the housing society on May 26, when Covishield doses were being given. However, several residents had demanded that they be administered Covaxin only. The police are now probing if the demand for Covaxin led to the vials being stolen from the health centre.
Officers pointed out that since all the 187 recipients had Naurangabad mentioned in their certificates, it meant that those who made the data entries had access to the ID and password of the Co-WIN account of the health centre. It could also mean that officials of the health centre who allegedly
pilfered the vials might have shared the ID and password with the organisers.
In Aligarh, a two-member committee formed by the chief medical officer, BPS Kalyani, questioned the health centre in-charge, Dr Ramya Pillai, and a few other officials. Dr Pillai, however, claimed she was unaware how the vials made their way to the Greater Noida highrise. “We have recipients from different areas. They come here, register themselves and get documented automatically. We work all across the state. We don’t keep personal details of the recipients,” she said. On Monday, a contractual
staff nurse at the centre was relieved of all duties by the CMO.