When the whole world is trying to fight coronavirus, the only available weapon we have at the time is the covid vaccine. The Govt of India has initiated various inoculation drives in the country to make sure more people are vaccinated every day.

While all this happening, eight people, including two women, were arrested in Vadodara on Sunday for allegedly spreading propaganda against the Covid vaccine at a public place in Kamati Baug area in the city.

According to police, a patrolling team of Sayajiganj police station arrested the group in the evening for allegedly “spreading anti-vaccine propaganda” through pamphlets in Hindi at the busy Kamati Baug Band Stand area.

The accused have been identified as Narendra Parmar, Chand-rakant Mistry, Vishal Ferwani, Kewal Pathadia, Jagvinder Singh, Irfan Patel, Avni Gajjar, and Bhumika Gajjar, all residents of Vadodara.

“A patrolling team received information that a group was involved in spreading anti-vaccine propaganda at Kamatibaug Band Stand around 1.45 pm.

 The persons, found to be members of ‘Awaken Gujarat Movement’ and ‘Awaken Vadodarians’, were involved in spreading the propaganda without wearing masks or maintaining social distancing at a time when a campaign is being carried out by the Union government on vaccination,” said a senior police officer of Sayajiganj police station.

According to police, all eight accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 120b for criminal conspiracy, 143 for unlawful assembly, 188 for disobedience to order given by public servant and 270 for malignant act likely to spread infection of a disease, along with section 51 B of the Disaster Management Act for refusing to comply with the directive issued by the central or state governments and section 54 of the Disaster Management Act for false warning.

Two pamphlets were seized by the police that said, “is it mandatory to take COVID vaccine” and “can those who don’t take Covid vaccine be bereft of all government related services and schemes”.

Police said the group had made a similar attempt in January 2021 and was actively spreading propaganda on social media group, Telegram.

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