Pathologist fakes lab’s name to do Covid tests at home, arrested in Kolkata

KOLKATA: The East Jadavpur police on Tuesday arrested a pathologist for faking to be a representative of a private hospital with an ICMR-approved Covid testing laboratory and doing Covid tests at home. The incident comes three days after Netaji Nagar police busted a gang of three pathologists who prepared fake Covid reports.
Investigators said besides the hospital, the pathologist, and his accomplices, have duped around 2,200 patients — all of whom ended up paying up a premium to get tested.

Police are investigating whether the Covid test reports prepared by the group were genuine.
Police said they are questioning Soumitra Choudhury (39), a resident of an upscale housing complex off EM Bypass. “Choudhury was an employee of Medica Superspeciality Hospital. Three years ago, he quit and opened a pathology centre in the name of his wife. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he started collecting samples from home and supplying them to his old friends in the pathology departments across the city. He would charge Rs 3,600 instead of Rs 2,200 from each patient. It seems he had a robust client base,” claimed an investigating officer.
Choudhury, police said, reportedly posed as the official swab collection officer of Medica. Cops arrested him from near the Mukundapur bus stand on Tuesday around 2.45 pm.
According to DCP (East) Gourab Lal, the probe started after a complaint was lodged by Komal Dashora, president (legal) of Medica Superspeciality Hospital, against Choudhury.
The Medica authorities even issued a notice warning customers and patients about Choudhury.
Alok Roy, chairperson, Medica Superspeciality Hospital, said that they came to know of the fraud when some patients told their doctors that their samples were collected from home.
“We immediately cautioned our patients and informed the police. Now that the main accused has been arrested, we are talking to our different franchises that were involved in the Covid tests and cautioned them about such acts and their consequences,” said Roy.
The DCP said, “He created a fake WhatsApp profile with a link to the page of www.wbhealth.gov.in and circulated it in various WhatsApp groups. In it, he impersonated himself as a representative of Medica Superspeciality Hospital. He collected samples for Covid test from the patient and induced them to pay an excess amount to the one fixed by the state health department.”