SRL booked for reporting ‘erroneous’ Covid results

Gurgaon: Police on Friday booked city-based private lab SRL Diagnostics for ‘misreporting’ Covid-19 test results as positive, a day after the health department’s recommendation.
The FIR has been lodged at the Sector 17/18 police station under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine document or electronic record which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 336 (acting rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 420 (cheating) and 467 (forging a document) of the Indian Penal Code , and Sector 53 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The lab reiterated that its results were correct, and that it stands by them. “Our statement remains the same,” SRL Diagnostics said on Friday.
“In April, SRL had re-tested the preserved RNA of the cases mentioned by the Ambala civil surgeon’s office. The results were similar to the first one, ie. positive,” it said.
The lab has been at the centre of a row since April over ‘erroneous’ Covid reports of four people from Ambala whose results were reported positive by it. They tested negative a day later at two government labs. Seven complaints were received from Gurgaon too.