Jind, Haryana: Sunhera, an old man who runs a tea shop outside the Police Civil Lines station in Jind, was lying on a charpoy (a traditional cot) when a masked man handed over a white polythene bag.
“He said it was food for a munsi officer inside. He dropped off the package, got on his scooter and rode off,” said Sunhera, who goes by just one name. “I didn’t know what was in the package till it came on the news.”
When the officers opened the bag, it wasn’t food at all. Inside were over 150 vials of Covishield and Covaxin and a note written in Hindi that read, “Sorry, I didn’t know these were corona vaccines.”
The news of the missing vaccines being returned went viral and gained the sympathies of many. But the thief had stolen another item which hasn’t yet been returned, and has made the entire episode all the more puzzling for the police.
“They stole a file of mine with RTI documents, which were related to complaints about a previous employee. They were RTI documents that anyone could have accessed. They won’t cause any harm to anyone, so it’s very strange that they would take those,” Health Inspector Ramehar Verma told ThePrint.
Even by the police’s estimates, the documents that were stolen aren’t of particularly high value. But that they haven’t been returned is of interest.
“It’s possible that the thieves stole the vaccines as a front for the documents, which they may have actually been after. It’s also possible they mistook the vaccines for medicine. It’s clear the vaccines are not what they were after, but it’s too soon to tell what the motive might have been,” said Deputy Inspector General O.P. Narwal.
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‘Left handed thief’
The investigation is currently tracking the masked man’s movements through various CCTV cameras. In the footage, most of the man’s face is covered by a white cloth.
“We’ve analysed the handwriting and it seems the note was written with the left hand,” said Narwal, adding, “We’re tracing his footsteps, and we hope to find him in the next few days.”
So determined was the thief that he didn’t bother taking a bag of cash worth Rs 50,000, which was lying just next to the files picked up.
“It’s someone who had a basic knowledge of medicine, because they not only took the vaccines, but opened another refrigerator and took an ice pack too,” said district immunisation officer Dr Ramesh Panchal. “Someone who had no idea what to look for wouldn’t have done that.”
The vaccines need to be maintained at a specific cold temperature. Once removed from such a setting, they deteriorate rapidly, affecting the vaccine’s potency.
The Post Partum Centre in the Civil Hospital complex, from where the vaccines were stolen, is a small, neat building that until the robbery, was protected by padlocks. Now, the complex has seven CCTV cameras to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
“This has been an immunisation site for years, and we’ve never had this problem before. But we won’t let it happen again. We’re happy that the investigation is on, and we would like to see who the thief turns out to be,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr Munjeet Singh.
(Edited by Manasa Mohan)
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From the CCTV footage it appears the thief is not wearing a helmet. Request the authorities to add that carge if he is ever caught. 😀
A thief is a thief and should not be glorified.