Court grants bail to pathology lab employee arrested for forging Covid-19 test reports

By LE Desk

New Delhi, June 22, 2021: A Delhi court today granted bail to a man, employed with a city-based pathology laboratory, who was accused of allegedly cheating the public by creating fake RTPCR COVID-19 reports. 

Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Bedi granted bail to Sunil Kumar on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 with a surety of like amount. 

“The accused has clean antecedents. The nature of the evidence is primarily documentary, which has been collected. In such circumstances without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, it would be appropriate if the accused be released on bail,” the court stated, news agency PTI reported.

The case was registered on the complaint of a person from whose house six Covid-19 samples were collected at the charge of of Rs 1,500 each. On suspicion, he contacted the lab officials, which informed him that the reports were not generated from their system and were fake. 

Additional Public Prosecutor Rakesh Kumar, representing the police, apprised the court that Kumar, who worked as a receptionist and billing manager in the lab, is one of the conspirators in preparing false reports as he did not upload the QR Code on the system of the laboratory. Two other co-accused have been arrested in the case, reported PTI.

According to the police, one Sunny Singh collected the samples from the house of the complainant on April 21, while another accused Jitender Sahu prepared the fake reports which were then given to Sunil Kumar. 

The judge noted that the allegation against Kumar is that he did not upload the QR Code and that it is too early to comment whether the accused acted intentionally in not uploading the QR Code and thereby played an active role in the conspiracy. 

Advocate Nayantara Sharma, representing the accused, said that her client had no concern with the collection, testing, and preparation of the COVID-19 samples as he was only a receptionist who would prepare the bills on the instructions of his superiors.