Over 1,700 doses of COVID-19 vaccine that were stolen from a government hospital in Haryana's Jind district on Wednesday night were returned hours later by the unidentified thief with a note that stated that he did not know that these were coronavirus jabs.
"Sorry, I didn't know it was medicines for corona," the thief wrote in Hindi in the note attached to the returned bag full of Covishield and Covaxin doses.
The incident happened on Thursday afternoon at the Civil Hospital in Jind when the thief fled away with 1,710 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the police, an unknown man handed the vaccine doses to an old man sitting at a tea stall outside the civil lines police station in the district and told him it was the station Munshi's lunch.
"We received a compliment in the morning from PPC center at Civil Hospital that 1,710 doses of vaccine were stolen from the center. We started an investigation into the case and collected some video evidence. However, at noon, an unknown man handed over the vaccines to an old man sitting on a tea stall outside the Civil Lines police station and said it was station Munshi's lunch," Jitendra Khatkar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Jind, told news agency ANI.
He added that when the old man handed the package to the police, they discovered the stolen vaccine doses.
"We covered all the doses notified by the Civil Hospital. We are trying to nab the thief as soon as possible," the DSP added.
