Madhya Pradesh: Truck laden with Covid-19 vaccine deserted for 12 hours

A truck carrying 2.40 lakh doses of Covaxin value Rs 8 crore was left parked for practically 12 hours after its driver went lacking beneath mysterious circumstances in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district, police mentioned on Saturday.
The Tamil Nadu-registered automobile, which was transporting the vaccine from Hyderabad to Karnal in Haryana, was left deserted for practically 12 hours in Kareli space, Narsinghpur superintendent of police Vipul Shrivastava mentioned.
The matter got here to mild on Friday afternoon when the police had been knowledgeable {that a} truck, with a point out of vaccine-manufacturer Bharat Biotech on it, was parked close to Kareli bus stand, round 16 km from the district headquarters, the official mentioned.
According to the police, the truck contained 2.40 lakh doses of Covaxin value Rs 8 crore.
“We contacted the transport company TCI of Gurgaon and informed them about the driverless truck. The company also got worried when they couldn’t contact the driver after finding out the GPS system that the vehicle remained stationary at Kareli,” Shrivastava mentioned.
The firm then organized for an additional driver and the truck set off for Karnal at 8 pm, he mentioned, including that the motive force Vikas Mishra continues to be lacking.
“We tracked down his phone at a place 16 km from the spot. As the engine of the vehicle was on, its refrigerator with vaccine doses was functioning. So, I feel that vaccines were safe,” he added.
When requested if incidents of truck loots had been reported on the route previously, Shrivastava mentioned street robberies are virtually naught within the area.
“Circumstantial evidence suggests that the driver was not robbed. Efforts are on to trace the driver, who is in his early to mid-20s and hails from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh,” the official added.