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MP: Ghost vaccination camp, 2,800 fake Covid certificates issued, probe ordered
A probe has been ordered to find how the certificates were issued four months after the mass vaccination drive ended in the state
As many as 2,800 fake Covid vaccination certificates were issued using government’s CoWin application in Madhya Pradesh after conducting a ‘ghost’ vaccination camp in a sub-health centre in state’s Bhind district, officials said.
A probe has been ordered to find how the certificates were issued four months after the mass vaccination drive ended in the state.
The certificates were issued from a small sub-health centre of Mehgaon block of Bhind district, officials added.
According to officials, none of the 2,800 beneficiaries of the certificate are residents of MP. Most of them are from Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, said an official, citing an internal probe of the state health department.
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“A probe has been ordered by the health department. The cyber cell is trying to trace the 2,800 beneficiaries but most of the mobile numbers are either switched off or call receivers are not sharing any detail about their whereabouts,” said Dr UPS Kushwaha, chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Bhind.
The alleged case came to light when a beneficiary sought Covid-19 vaccination certificate on May 30.
When health officials checked the CoWin portal, the official quoted above said they found that 2,800 certificates have been issued in the month of May after vaccination camps at sub-health centre of Soni, a village in Mehgaon block.
Even though the health officials changed the login password on May 30, the certificates were issued from the portal on May 31, said the official.
“The health official checked and found that the stock of vaccines finished by February. No vaccination is going on since then. The health workers and block medical officers (BMOs) were interrogated and informed that they didn’t have any information about vaccination and issuance of certificates. Now, the matter has been handed over to cyber cell,” said Satish Kumar, collector, Bhind.
A health officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “When we contacted the beneficiaries, the people from Chhattisgarh and Gujarat accepted that they received the certificate from Bhind after vaccination. They disconnected the call when they were asked about the time they had come to Bhind for the certificate.”
He added that a few people claimed they got the certificate through agents.
“This is a matter of investigation now,” he added.
Bhind superintendent of police Manish Khatri said the investigation is underway in the matter.
“We are yet to get any major breakthrough. Cyber experts are trying to find out, how it happened and who all are behind this ghost vaccination,” he added.
