The Delhi Police have arrested five employees of the Genestrings lab in south Delhi for generating fake COVID-19 reports. The arrested wanted to earn quick money by testing more COVID-19 samples, said police on Friday.
Atul Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said that on April 29, a Police Control Room call was received at the Malviya Nagar Police Station, wherein it was mentioned that the Genestrings lab in Malviya Nagar was generating fake COVID-19 reports.
A police team reached the location, where the caller Vipul Saini stated that a week ago he, along with around 45 relatives, had given their samples for COVID-19 testing to Himanshu and Pragyanand Sharma.
On April 25, one Rishab Shukla gave his sample to them and on the next day, that is, April 26, he tested positive for the coronavirus but did not have any symptoms.
On April 28, he again gave a sample to one Spice Health Laboratory where he tested negative.
On April 29, complainant Vipul Saini along with Himanshu Sharma and Pragyanand alias Nihal Sharma, went to the Genestrings lab and cross-checked to find that the above report of Rishabh Shukla was not in the records of this lab.
“Himanshu Sharma then stated that he along with his cousin Pragyanand used to collect home samples and give it to Dr. Manish working in Genestrings lab without making any entry in the record of Genestrings lab. Dr. Manish used to share the result with Pragyanand through an Excel sheet and then Pragyanand would print the result on the fake letterhead of Genestrings lab, which was provided to him by Dr. Manish,” said Mr. Thakur.
Responding to the allegations, Chetan Kohli, COO of Genestrings Diagnostic Centre, Malviya Nagar said, “On being approached by a 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. We immediately called the local police station in-charge for the investigation of what seemed to be a fake report issue.”
“All our reports have QR code which can be easily used to distinguish the authenticity of reports. We reiterate our commitment to the service of the nation during this pandemic and assure testing with integrity and quality,” Mr. Kohli said.
