Hyderabad: A 26-year-old lab technician, Seeli Kiran Kumar, who cheated a family by issuing fake RT-PCR tests reports, claiming to be original, was arrested by Jawahar Nagar police of Rachakonda Commissionerate.
Investigation revealed that even without sending samples to any lab, he created fake RTPCR test reports by editing the old Medcis pathlabs RT PCR PDF report and sent them to the family.
According to police, being a lab technician helped him get acquainted with the victim's family some years back.
The victim Dhami Reddy Sunil Kumar and some of his family members showed symptoms of Covid-19 and he contacted Kiran Kumar.
"Kiran collected the swab samples of the victim and his family for RT-PCR tests and charged Rs 1,000 for each sample. Two days later, Kiran forwarded the reports on social media and informed that Reddy and all his family members had tested negative," said police.
However, the victim's wife Naga Laxmi and daughter Yashvi showed Covid-19 symptoms and again called Kiran for a second time. This time he again collected the samples and sent reports that they had tested positive.
Meanwhile, Naga Lakshmi complained of stomach pain and Reddy called up Kiran, who brought two doctors to his house and collected blood samples. He charged Rs 7,500.
On completion of home quarantine, when Reddy enquired with Medcis path lab, he was told that his samples were not tested by them. He realised that he was cheated.He lodged a complaint with Jawahar Nagar police, who booked a case and investigated and arrested the accused on Friday.
Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh M. Bhagwat appealed to the public to get tested in government testing centres and ICMR-recognised private testing centers.
