HC stays arrest of 2 Amritsar docs, seeks report

AT LEAST FOUR PATIENTS, REPORTED TO BE COVID-19 POSITIVE AT A PRIVATE LAB, WERE FOUND NEGATIVE AFTER TEST AT GOVT MEDICAL COLLEGE

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday restrained the Punjab police from arresting two doctors and sought a probe report in the alleged incident of preparing fake Covid-19 reports in Amritsar in June.

The high court acted on the plea of Dr Robin Tuli and Dr Mohinder Singh, who had approached high court seeking anticipatory bail in the FIR registered on June 23 by Punjab vigilance bureau.

The state’s counsel, GS Dhuriwala had told court that a medical board, constituted on June 18, is examining the matter. During the investigation, 72 cases were declared positive by Tuli Diagnostic Centre, Majithia Road, Amritsar, and cycle threshold values were handwritten on test requisition slips, the court was informed.

It was further stated that no printout from machine was available for examination and no raw data or graph was present to know whether the figures given by the lab match those generated by the machine.

On the other hand, appearing for doctors, senior advocate RS Rai had contended that the reports are in fact computer generated and there might be a noting on the side of computerised reports regarding Covid-19

Virus Qualitative PCR.

The high court bench of justice Jaishree Thakur sought a report from the medical board in a sealed cover along with a photocopy of 72 positive reports purported to have been handwritten.

Apart from these reports, if there is other evidence available against the petitioners, that too is to be submitted, the court said while fixing August 17 as the next date of hearing and staying the arrest of both the doctors.

As per reports, these doctors in collusion with others allegedly prepared fake Covid-19 positive reports at their laboratory to fleece patients.

The alleged racket had surfaced in June when at least four patients, reported to be Covid-19 positive at the accused’s lab, turned out to be negative for the disease after a retest at the lab in Government Medical College (GMC), Amritsar, the reports had claimed.

On June 23, Punjab vigilance bureau registered a case against the owner of TDC, Dr Tuli, and others for attempt to murder, fraud, criminal conspiracy and corruption.