5 arrested for handing out fake Covid test reports in Delhi

Those arrested include two lab technicians, and an application scientist working at a laboratory carrying out Covid-19 tests

Five people, including two lab technicians, and an application scientist working at a laboratory carrying out Covid-19 tests, have been arrested for allegedly giving fake test reports, the Delhi Police said on Friday.

Representational Image. (File photo)

According to Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (south), the alleged scamsters dished out at least 400 fake test results after beginning this fraud on April 23.

The complainant belongs to a large family in south Delhi’s Khirki Extension. Forty-five members of this extended family gave their samples for Covid-19 testing, but each of them was given a false result, said the DCP.

It began late this month when 44 members of this family got themselves tested by two technicians of this lab over a period of a few days. Some of them were given positive results, other negative, the DCP said, adding that the exact count of either results was yet to be ascertained.

One of the members of this family, Rishab Shukla, got a positive result on Monday. “But Shukla didn’t have any symptoms so he decided to get himself tested at another lab on Wednesday. This time his result arrived negative,” said the DCP.

Shukla then decided to check with the first lab and visited their centre on Thursday to learn that his sample never reached them and was nowhere on their records.

The police were eventually contacted.The police registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy at Malviya Nagar police station and probed the case to arrest five persons.

According to the DCP, two lab technicians were taking the help of an application scientist of Genestrings Diagnostic Centre to prepare fake Covid reports and give them to the patients.

They were allegedly using the letter pad of the lab to issue these fake reports.

The other two persons arrested were “colleagues” of the application scientist, the DCP said.

Responding on the development, Chetan Kohli, COO of Genestrings Diagnostic Centre, said, “On being approached by few patients to authenticate reports bearing our lab’s name, we found out that they were not issued by us nor tested at our lab. We immediately called the local police station in-charge for an investigation of what seemed to be a fake report issue”.

“On police investigations requested by us, five of our employees were identified to be a party to this crime without the knowledge of the lab management or lab head,” said Kohli.

“We are not just disappointed but disgusted by this act of malice for a few rupees putting the lives of patients at risk. We’re in full compliance with the investigating authorities and support any and every action taken against them,” he said.

“All our reports have a QR code which can be easily used to check the authenticity of reports. We reiterate our commitment to the service of the nation during this pandemic and assure testing with integrity and quality,” Kohli added.