The Shivaji Nagar police arrested a 31-year-old pathology lab operator on Friday for allegedly giving patients a false COVID19 negative report. The accused was identified as one Abdul Khan.
According to the police, Khan runs a pathology lab in Govandi -- by the name of S S Pathology; after collecting blood and swab samples of patients, Khan would send them to an another lab, Thyrocare in Turbe, for the PCR test. The company tested the sample for corona virus presence and sent their report on its letter head to Khan, who gave it to the patients.
In October, the company received a complaint of a false negative report of a 71-year-old patient. The patient, who was showing symptoms, went to another lab after Khan gave him a negative report. In the second test, the patient was declared positive for COVID19; the patient then sent an email to the lab about the goof up.
During the inquiry it was revealed that the patient had tested positive in the tests at Thyrocare as well; Khan allegedly gave a false negative report after forging the previous one.
The police suspect that Khan allegedly did so monetary gains, they have recovered reports given by him and are checking with the company about their authenticity.
Following the revelation, he was arrested under the IPC section related to disobeying public servant's order (188), negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life (269) , along with relevant sections of cheating and forgery of IPC and for violation of COVID19 norms.
