Nashik police bust fake Covid negative report racket

NASHIK: The Nashik police have arrested two people for issuing fake Covid-negative reports to people for either inter-state or inter-district travel.
The accused identified as Chandrakant Metkar (54) and Raul Karpe (36) have been arrested under section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and sections of the Information Technology Act. Both of them have been remanded in police custody for three days.
According to Devraj Borse, the senior police inspector of cyber crime, the matter came to light based on a tip-off about the fake Covid 19 negative certificates being delivered to the people who want e-passes to travel.
Police sepoy Rahul Palkhede received the tip-off about such certificates. He along with Ganesh Zinzurke, a resident of Satpur, who was presented as a decoy customer, went to the Hi-tech Cyber Cafe at Thakkar Bazaar and sought an e-pass for three people going to Dhule for a wedding.
Metkar went through the details of addresses presented and said he would charge Rs 500 for the same. He also said the e-pass will not be allowed for a wedding but issued only for emergency work.
In the evening the police received a message that an e-pass had been issued. When they went through the details, they found that Zinzurke (decoy customer), who had not taken an RT-PCR test, had a Covid negative report from a private laboratory.
The police went to the cyber cafe again and asked the operator for the details, where it was revealed that the fake certificate of RT-PCR was submitted to get the e-pass.
When asked how it was done, Metkar said Rahul Karpe would edit the earlier certificate and then the records were deleted.