Kumbh mela fake testing case: Path lab approaches Uttarakhand High Court

By LE Desk

Dehradun, June 22, 2021: One of the path labs against which a case has been registered in the Kumbh fake testing matter — Dr Lalchandani Labs Limited — has approached the Uttarakhand High Court challenging the legality of the FIR. 

The petitioner, director of the lab, says that they have been becoming ‘victim of the media trial’ and that the FIR has been lodged out of ‘immense media pressure’, The New Indian Express reported.

Hearing of the matter is likely to come up in the Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday, June 24, 2021. 

The petitioner in the petition says that the lab from April 1-26, 2021 has conducted total 12,010 rapid antigen tests for which it charged Rs 206 per test which is minimal cost. Citing that for this much tests, the bill of Rs 24,74,060 has been generated and nowhere embezzlement of crores has been done as claimed in the media.

The FIR was filed on Thursday against the firm and two pathology laboratories in Haridwar district on the complaint of the Chief Medical Officer, Haridwar alleging fake Covid testing and many other violations during Kumbh in April 2021, reported The New Indian Express. 

The case has been registered under sections of Epidemic Act, 1897, Disaster Management Act, 2005, IPC 420 (forgery), 468 (forgery), 471(fraudulently using as genuine any document or electronic record), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 188 (punishment for disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant),  269 and 270 (likely to spread infection).