The police booked three swab collectors from a government hospital in Yelahanka for collecting samples from private labs and sending them for testing to government facilities to make money.
The fraud came to light when the administrative officer Dr. Chethan Kumar noticed that the number of COVID-19 test reports had increased drastically in the past few days and conducted a probe following which the accused confessed.
Based on his complaint, the Yelahanka police registered a cheating complaint against Padmanabha K.B., Satisha and Puneeth Kumar, who are swab collectors at Yelahanka government hospital. They also booked Bhavi Reddy, the owner of Standard Diagnostic Centre, for cheating.
In his complaint, Dr. Chethan Kumar said that the hospital has a facility to collect the swabs of patients and primary contacts to get them tested and generate reports as per the government order.
The accused were hired on contract in the lab to collect samples of 100 patients every day and take them to Command Hospital in Domlur for analysis. On May 5, while verifying the reports, Dr. Kumar realised that the number of samples sent for testing had increased noticeably.
On suspicion, he summoned the swab collectors for questioning.
“A detailed questioning led the accused to confess that they had collected 50 samples from Standard Diagnostic Centre and sent them along with the regular 100 samples for testing. Bhavi Reddy had promised to pay them ₹100 for every report,” said the police.
The hospital has suspended the accused and the police have taken few of them into custody for questioning.
