Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, October 1
Airport police on Friday arrested a technician attached to a private pathology lab on charges of supplying fabricated and false RTPCR certificates to the air travellers.
Police on Thursday had registered an FIR against owner and employees of the Plasma diagnostics centre at Rajabajar, two kms from the airport on Bailey Road. Production of negative reports of RTPCR is required for the air traveller here and those found positive were turned away from the airport.
About one dozen agents of private labs were engaged by the promoters of different diagnostic centres. They charged Rs 2000 per traveller for issuance of negative report certificates. They collected Rs 1000 in advance.
The agents used to note down details of the travellers, pass it on to the labs and within 30 minutes air travellers were getting reports in their mobile sets to allow them boarding the plane.
Following a complaint from the Jayaprakash Narayan international airport director, District Magistrate of Patna, Chandrasekhar Singh constituted an investigation team consisting of airport officials, chief medical officer, protocol officer and control room magistrate.
Dr Awinash Kumar Singh, additional chief medical officer submitted a report to DM confirming fake RTPCR racket and filed an FIR against Rajabajar based diagnostic centre.Ownet has escaped, but a technician has been arrested.
Police said they found fake RTPCR certificates issued by other diagnostic centres including Saral, General and Hind labs.
Police claimed about 20 centres were engaged in the job of fake RTPCR certificates. On an average about 200 air travellers were allowed to board planes on production of fake certificates. Incidentally, prompters of all private labs have gone underground as police investigation spread.
