Private agency, 2 labs booked for fake Covid reports during Kumbh

The Uttarakhand Police Thursday lodged an FIR against a private agency and two laboratories for allegedly issuing fake rapid antigen test reports during the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar with an intention to make financial profit.

This comes after Chief Medical Officer S K Jha submitted a complaint to the police mentioning that a three-member inquiry panel, set up by the Haridwar district magistrate, submitted a preliminary report on Wednesday — nearly a month after the state health department was forwarded a complaint from ICMR on May 14. The complaint mentioned a



person’s Aadhaar and mobile number being used for a Covid-19 test despite no collection of sample.

As per the CMO’s complaint, the inquiry panel found that the firm made a large number of entries on the same sample ID: such as 3,825 samples being collected from a single address and 56 people registered with a single phone number. “The firm made fake entries to make profit,” stated the complaint.