Covid shot: UP police lodge FIR after misleading pamphlets appear

Bareilly: A spate of pamphlets urging people of a particular community against taking anti-COVID vaccine shots and spreading rumours about their ingredients surfaced in the city here on Sunday, prompting police to lodge an FIR against unknown miscreants.

The pamphlets, found in posh Rajendra Nagar locality here, appealed to a particular community to avoid taking the vaccines, SP (City) Ravindra Singh said.

The leaflets were immediately seized and an FIR was lodged in the Premnagar police station against unknown persons under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for mischief mongering and trying to whip up communal passions, he said.

The SP said the police vigil has been stepped up across the city, particularly in sensitive areas, to maintain peace and nab the culprits.

Reviewing the vaccination drive, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had cautioned on Saturday, “Some selfish people with vested interests were spreading rumours about the corona vaccine.”

“We always have to be valiant. There is a need to avoid any kind of rumour and people should wait for their turn,” he had said as the drive was launched in the state to break the COVID-19 chain.

An official release had said that many doctors and nurses got vaccinated in Balrampur Hospital in the state capital. They were also kept in observation for half an hour and all of them were completely healthy.

“Initially, I was scared but after taking the dose, I am feeling completely healthy. I am happy that India is the first country in the world to successfully make the vaccine,” Geeta Devi, the staff nurse of Balrampur hospital, who took the first shot of the vaccine had said.