Kumbh devotees get verification calls, even those who did not attend

Nearly one lakh devotees who had visited the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar in AprilMay this year have started receiving calls to ascertain if the person using the number had even attended the Kumbh Mela in the first placeA large number of devotees from Uttar Pradesh had attended the Haridwar Kumbh MelaRudra Dutt Chaturvedi an octogenarian in Kanpur has received one such callI did not visit the Kumbh Mela but my relatives did I received a call asking details about my visit I do not know if my relatives gave my number but then why would they give my number he wonderedTeams investigating the RTPCR test scam that surfaced during the Kumbh Mela are now calling up all mobile phone numbers that were registered against the nearly 1 lakh RTPCR tests that are alleged to be fakeAlso Read 70 lakh participated in Kumbh Mela held amid COVID19 surgeThe Uttarakhand government has constituted an eightmember team that is dialing these numbers one by one and verifying themEleven private companies had been authorized by the Uttarakhand government to carry out RTPCR tests of people attending the fair This was done in order to detect Covid19 cases and prevent the viral infection from spreading in the Kumbh Mela areaAmong these 11 companies was Max Corporate Services which in turn hired Nalwa Labs and Dr Lalchandani Labs to conduct RTPCR tests Nearly 1 lakh carried out by these labs are under the scannerInterestingly the Nalwa Labs further outsourced the work to a company called Dolifia even though it did not have a licence to conduct RTPCR testsInvestigations so far have revealed that these 1 lakh RTPCR tests were done merely on papers and no test was actually carried out As a result the Kumbh Mela apparently turned into a super spreader and Covid19 cases rose dramaticallyHaridwar district magistrate C Ravishankar said that the labs conducting RTPCR tests were supposed to mandatorily record details of each person whose samples were being collectedHowever despite this the private labs flouted norms and resorted to illegal means to showcase an inflated number of tests conducted by themThe district magistrate has also constituted a threemember team to investigate the matter and the probe is onThe Haridwar Kumbh RTPCR test scam came to light when one Vipin Mittal a resident of Faridkot in Punjab wrote to the Uttarakhand health secretary stating that even though he did not attend the Kumbh Mela an RTPCR report from Haridwar was delivered to himFollowing this the health secretary ordered the Haridwar district magistrate to investigate this matter and during initial investigations it was found that one lakh fake RTPCR tests had been shown on paperFollowing the findings of the preliminary investigation which indicated fraud by the private labs the district magistrate ordered a case to be registered against themActing on the complaint of Haridwars Chief Medical Officer Dr SK Jha the police filed a case on June 17 in which three private firms have been named as accusedBased on the findings the labs have been booked under sections 269 negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life 420 cheating and dishonesty 468 forgery for purpose of cheating 471 using as genuine a forged document 120 B criminal conspiracy and 188 disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant of the Indian Penal Code along with sections of the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic ActAccording to investigations between April 13 and May 16 these companies provided entries of 104796 samples Of these details of 95102 samples were uploaded on the online portalIt has been alleged that in order to maximize their profits these companies prepared fake test reportsFor example these companies claimed to have collected 3925 samples in Haridwars Nepali Farm area However all these samples were registered against the same mobile phone numberMeanwhile Max Corporate Services and Dr Lalchandani Labs have approached the Uttarakhand High Court and challenged the FIR filed against themThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever