After conducting multiple raids in connection with a money laundering probe into fake Covid-19 testing during Kumbh Mela in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday searched the offices of various laboratories, news agency PTI said in a statement.
The search was conducted in premises of Novus Path Labs, DNA Labs, Max Corporate Services, Dr Lal Chandani Labs Pvt Ltd and Nalwa Laboratories Pvt Ltd and also at the residential premises of their directors in Dehradun, Haridwar, Delhi, Noida and Hisar.
Recently, the agency registered a criminal case under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the accused companies and their directors on the basis of FIRs registered by Uttarakhand Police.
During the probe into money laundering, it was revealed that these labs were given the contract by the Uttarakhand government for conducting rapid antigen RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 during the Kumbh mela.
During the ongoing raids, the ED has seized “incriminating documents, bogus bills, laptops, mobile phones and property documents and Rs 30.9 lakh cash.
The ED says these laboratories hardly carried out any coronavirus tests and made “fake entries” for the testing and raised “bogus” bills in order to earn illegal financial gains.
The Uttarakhand government has already sent an amount of Rs 3.4 crore to these labs as part payment, it added.
In its investigation, the agency found that the “modus operandi used by these labs was that they used a single mobile number or a false mobile number, single address or same specimen referral form (SRF) for multiple persons for showing the inflated numbers of Covi-19 testing without actually doing the testing.”
ED’s statement says that testing was claimed to be done in the name of the persons who never visited the Kumbh Mela.
However, due to false negative testing, the test positivity rate of Haridwar at that time was shown at 0.18% against the actual 5.3%.
One of the world’s largest religious gatherings, the Kumbh was held in the state from April 1 to 30, and the notified area for the followers covered various places in Haridwar, Dehradun, and Tehri districts.
The Uttarakhand police has registered a case against Lalchandani Lab, Nalwa Lab, and Max Corporate Services under the Indian Penal Code, Epidemic Diseases Act and Disaster Management Act.
