Five arrested for making forged Covid-19 test reports in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Five people have been arrested for allegedly making forged COVID-19 test reports in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar, police said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Pragyanand Sharma (24), Himanshu Sharma (24), doctor Manish Kumar (32), Satender (26) and Nikhil (22), they said.

On Thursday, a PCR call was received at the Malviya Nagar Police Station saying that some persons at Genestrings Lab, Malviya Nagar, were making fake coronavirus test reports, police said.

According to complainant Vipul Saini, a resident of Khirki Village, he along with 45 of his relatives gave samples for COVID-19 testing to Himanshu and Pragyanand.

On Sunday, Rishab Shukla, a friend of Saini, also gave his sample for testing to the accused duo.

The test reports stated that Shukla was COVID-19 positive, but he did not have any symptoms.

On Wednesday, he gave his sample to another laboratory where he tested negative for the infection, police said.

On Thursday, Saini along with Himanshu and Pragyanand went to the Genestrings Lab and found that the report of Shukla was not in the records of the laboratory, police said.

Admitting to their crime, Himanshu said he along with his cousin Pragyanand, used to collect home samples and give them to Manish, working in Genestrings Lab, without making any entry in the records of the laboratory, the officer said.

"Manish used to share the results with Pragyanand through excel sheets and then Pragyanand would print the results on the fake letter head of Genestrings Lab," police said.

Responding to the development, Chetan Kohli, COO, Genestrings Diagnostic Center, Malviya Nagar said, "After 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."

Five of our employees were identified to be a party to this crime without the knowledge of lab management or lab head.

"We are not just disappointed but disgusted by this act of malice for a few rupees putting the lives of patients at risk. All our reports have QR code which can be easily used to distinguish the authenticity of reports," he added.