U’khand fake testing: HC grants diagnostic lab owners interim relief from arrest

Justice NS Dhanik, who heard the matter, has directed the owners of Lalchandani Labs to appear before an investigating officer on June 26 and cooperate in the ongoing probe into alleged fake Covid testing during the Mahakumbh

The Uttarakhand high court on Thursday granted temporary protection from arbitrary arrest to the owners of Delhi-based Lalchandani Labs, which is under investigation for allegedly administering fake Covid tests during the Mahakumbh.

Representational image. (AFP)

Vikas Bahuguna, counsel of the petitioner, said Justice NS Dhanik, who heard the matter, has directed the owners of Lalchandani Labs to appear before an investigating officer on June 26 and cooperate in the ongoing probe.

On Wednesday, the court had granted temporary protection from arbitrary arrest to the owners of Noida-based Max Corporate Services and Hisar-based Nalwa Labs, and directed them to appear before an investigating officer on Friday and cooperate in the probe.

Bahuguna said the interim relief has been granted in view of the Supreme Court judgement in the case of Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar. The 2014 Arnesh Kumar judgment required the police to conduct a preliminary probe before making arrests where offences were punishable with imprisonment for less than seven years. Under these guidelines, a police officer has to record reasons for an arrest in writing and it can be done only if it fulfils certain conditions.

Owners of Lalchandani Labs, Nalwa Labs and private agency Max Corporate Services were booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases Act last week. Days later, all three firms approached the high court separately to quash the FIR. At present, there are three separate probes into the issue: one by the police, one by the district administration and one by the mela administration.

On June 21, a criminal writ petition was filed by Lalchandani Labs Ltd through Anchal Gupta, one of the directors of the private lab, four days after a case was filed against it by Haridwar police.

Bahuguna said, “Lalchandani Labs signed a MoU with Max Corporate Services on March 10 in which it was agreed that the lab would conduct RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests at Haridwar Kumbh Mela. It conducted only 12,000 rapid antigen tests and no RT-PCR test between April 1 and 26. The labs conducted tests at a nominal ₹206 per test and the total bill for these tests was around ₹24.74 lakh and not crores of rupees as reported by media.

The Kumbh mela was curtailed this year but devotees thronged Haridwar for months despite experts saying the crowds and rampant violation of Covid protocol could spark a surge in infections. Roughly 9.1 million pilgrims took the holy dip in the Ganga from January 14 to April 27. The bulk of this -- at least six million people -- congregated in April, coinciding with the worst surge in the second wave of the pandemic.