Ranchi Police: 2 held for photoshopped Covid reports to passengers

Ranchi Police Friday arrested two persons for allegedly preparing fake RT-PCR reports of passengers travelling to other states from Ranchi. Police said that the accused used to ‘photoshop’ test reports and give them to the passengers at the airport.

According to police, the accused have been identified as Ali and Shamim—who police said go by one name—and were arrested Friday. They said both the accused had worked as lab assistants in Ranchi.

Superintendent of Police, City, Saurav said: “There are many states which require negative RT-PCR reports and the airline demanded it before passengers could board. These two accused used to edit the report in exchange for some money. Further investigation is ongoing to arrest the remaining accused.”

SHO of Airport Police Station in Ranchi district, Anand Prakash Singh, said: “Suspicion arose when two persons were often spotted at the airport. This is when CISF personnel started verifying their credentials when the entire issue came to fore.”

An FIR has been registered at Airport Police Station under relevant IPC sections.

SHO Singh said the accused used to approach people who weren’t allowed to check-in without RT-PCR reports. “They used to conduct some tests and prepared fake RT-PCR negative reports after editing a random person’s positive report in exchange for some money. They told us that till now, they have prepared more than half a dozen such reports. Whether or not the travelers knew that the report was fake is a matter of investigation,” he said.