Doctors coerced me to change Hisar mayor’s report: Biologist

ROHTAK: A Hisar-based biologist, who was posted as the Covid-19 quarantine in-charge, has accused the senior doctors of pressurising him to change the virus report of city mayor Gautam Sardana.

Biologist Dr Ramesh Punia alleged that the senior doctors had called a meeting on Friday and asked him to appear before them. “Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) in-charge Dr Jaya Goel asked me to write that the city mayor had tested negative for the virus and the newspapers are publishing wrong information about it. I told her that the mayor’s sample taken on July 5 had tested positive and the media is publishing accurate information. She told me that the mayor’s sample were sent to Agroha Medical College on July 6 evening and his report has tested negative,” Punia said.

He alleged that the local health department had taken the mayor’s samples earlier on May 10 and his report came two hours later. The mayor had then tested negative. “the reports of VIPS come in just two hours and the common man has to wait for three days,” Punia said, adding that the ISDP in-charge had called him ‘Ramayana’s Vibhishana’ and accused him of providing accurate information to the media.

Hisar civil surgeon Dr Ratna Bharti said she had called a meeting to clear doubts on city mayor Gautam Sardana’s Covid -19 report. “The mayor sent his samples to a private lab in Gurugram on June 5 and we had also taken his samples the same day. He tested negative as per the lab’s report and tested positive in our report on June 6. I had called Punia and staff members to clear doubts over the mayor’s report,” Dr Bharati added.