Karnataka: Four Held For Providing 'Fake' RT-PCR Report To First Omicron Patient In Bengaluru

The South African omicron patient was kept under quarantine since he tested positive for COVID-19 but the patient reportedly produced a fake negative certificate and left the facility in four days.

A medical professional taking swabs from a passenger at an airport (Image for representation)

Chennai: The Indian authorities zeroed down two senior executives of a South African pharma company and two other junior employees of a lab and arrested all of them for issuing a "fake" negative COVID-19 certificate to help the first South African Omicron patient to leave India last month. The omicron patient, who was a South African national, tested positive for COVID-19 and he was kept under quarantine in a star hotel in Vasanthnagar. 

However, within the next four days of reaching India on November 20, he produced a negative COVID-19 certificate on November 27 and left for South Africa. 

According to a report on Deccan Herald, the patient returned to the country even as his genome sequencing results were awaited and the result came back on December 2, declaring him positive for Omicron.  

Following this, the authorities conducted a probe and found out that the report produced by the COVID-19 patient was "fake". The authorities then intensified the probe and zeroed down four people on Sunday for giving the patient a fake certificate. 

Therefore, the police booked two persons from Adcock Ingram ltd after identifying them as Vice president of quality control Yogeshwar Mohan Persad Dokie and Manager of Quality Control Ravindranath. Further, they also booked two persons from Syngene Lab identified as Junior Executive Custodian Manoj Kumar and Registration Executive Prashanth of the lab, said the report. 

The South African is reportedly one of the directors of the company and he has also been booked.