Pune: Two men were arrested on Sunday for forging RT-PCR test results by using the name of a private laboratory.
According to Pune police, they are technicians who had worked with a number of laboratories, and thus are aware of how RT-PCR test is conducted and the method of issuing reports.
A local court here sent them to police custody under Deccan Gymkhana PS, until April 23, reported Hindustan Times.
The duo, identified as 25-year-old Sagar Ashok Hande and 21-year-old Dayanand Bhimrao Kharate, is suspected to have other accomplices. They are suspected to have duped 10-15 people so far.
“They found a loophole when people started contacting them directly to collect swabs. We are investigating what kind of kits they used to collect these swabs of which they forged the reports. There are cases where the patients are actually positive and they have given them false negative reports,” said senior police inspector Murlidhar Karpe.
“GenePath labs got suspicious after someone who had developed symptoms came to them saying that their test was negative. In one other case, in one place on the report the accused had forgotten to edit the name of the person they had earlier sent it to. The laboratory got even more suspicious after they saw that the letterhead on which these reports were shown had been scrapped by the lab in the past,” sub-inspector Abhijeet Kudale informed mediapersons.
The duo has been booked under sections 419 (personation), 320 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468, 469, 471 (using forged as genuine) and 336 of IPC.
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