UP Police register FIR against vaccine camp organisers in Greater Noida society

The Uttar Pradesh Police have registered a case against the organisers of vaccination camps held last month at Jaypee Greens housing society in Greater Noida for allegedly flouting rules to get free vaccines from an Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) in Aligarh’s Naurangabad, nearly 120 km away.

The FIR lists several charges, including under IPC section 420 (cheating), against the society’s residents’ welfare association president Shubh Gautam and at least five others, for having “organised vaccine camps without prior permission from the Health Department of Gautam Buddh Nagar” district.

“Investigations are going on. Our team is on the job and trying to find all evidence,” Gautam Buddh Nagar Police Commissioner Alok Singh told The Indian Express.

The FIR was registered Sunday night at Beta 2 Police Station of Greater Noida on a complaint filed by the district’s Additional Chief Medical Officer Neeraj Tyagi.

It includes statements from three residents that they were administered Covaxin at a camp in the society on May 27 but were given certificates from the Naurangabad UPHC dated May 26.

The FIR also includes charges under IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) — and article 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act (disobeying any regulation or order).

The FIR states that one of the accused, Anil Gupta, was present in the society when the district’s Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri and Sub-Divisional Magistrate Prasun Dwivedi visited Sunday, along with a police team, to inquire into the camps. Gupta allegedly did not cooperate with the probe team, the FIR states.

It states that the probe team got the names of the camps’ organisers from a retired IAS officer and resident of the society, Shankar Aggarwal.

On Monday, The Indian Express reported how nearly 200 members of Jaypee Greens in Greater Noida were vaccinated for free in two camps conducted in the society late last month and the beneficiaries included those between the ages of 18-44, and those above 45.

While top officials told this newspaper that no permission had been given for the camps, Gautam had denied the charges. Naurangabad UPHC in-charge Dr Ramya had claimed that the “vaccinations of these beneficiaries were done at my centre”.