DEHRADUN/ HARIDWAR: The special investigation team probing the fake Covid testing scam during the Kumbh mela in Uttarakhand is also probing the role of Haridwar chief medical officer (CMO) Dr SK Jha under whose watch the tests were conducted by the contracted agencies, report Ishita Mishra and MS Nawaz. Incidentally, Jha is the complainant in the case. Rakesh Rawat, an SIT official, told TOI, “We aren’t giving a clean chit to anyone and interrogating all the stakeholders.”
Reacting to the allegations, Jha told TOI, “I am being interrogated but that doesn’t mean I am an accused. I’m clean.”
The CMO’s role has come into question after documents surfaced which revealed that Nalwa Path Labs — under scanner for conducting around 1 lakh fake tests — had a tie-up with another path lab, Delphia Labs, located in Haryana. Delphia was one of the firms that was supposed to provide free first-aid services at Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district last year. Jha was the CMO of Rudraprayag at that time. An official said “the coincidence of the same lab getting work in Kedarnath and in Kumbh and in both places the senior most health department official being the same is being probed”.