n The Delhi Police has arrested five people for allegedly making forged Covid-19 test reports in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar.
The accused have been identified as Pragyanand Sharma (24), Himanshu Sharma (24), doctor Manish Kumar (32), Satender (26) and Nikhil (22).
“On Thursday, a police control room (PCR) call was received at the Malviya Nagar Police Station in which the caller told police that some persons at Genestrings Lab, Malviya Nagar, were making fake coronavirus test reports,” said the senior police official.
According to the 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 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,” said police.
“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,” said the senior police official.
“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,” said police official.
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.