Man arrested for issuing fake Covid negative reports to Borivali bizman

The Mumbai Crime Branch officials on Tuesday arrested a 35-year-old man for allegedly issuing fake Covid-19 reports to a businessman, who wanted to fly to Jaipur.

The accused identified as Prasenjit Acharya, who works as a third-party administrator at a hospital in Borivali, had met the businessman at the hospital a couple of months ago, and told him that he was a doctor and could help him with a Covid report whenever required.

On April 8, the businessman told Acharya that a few of his relatives had to urgently fly to Jaipur and needed a RT-PCR reports. Acharya asked them for their Aadhaar cards and in two days gave them a negative RT-PCR report, said crime branch officials.

But when the businessman’s relatives reached the airport, authorities scanned the bar codes on the report and found them to be forged, and were not allowed to fly.

The businessman then enquired and found that Acharya was not a doctor after which he approached the Unit-11 of the crime branch.

The businessman in his complaint told crime branch officials that Acharya had also allegedly taken Rs 10,000 advance from an another person under the pretext providing Remdesivir an anti-viral drug used for treating COVUD19 patients.

Crime branch officials then arrested Acharya on Wednesday and handed him over to Kasturba Marg police station at Borivali for further investigation. Acharya has been arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).