Four people have been arrested by the Karnataka police in Bengaluru for complicity in providing a fake RT-PCR negative report for a South African COVID positive patient, according to reports. The fake RT-PCR report enabled the South African to leave India via Dubai. The 66-year-old South African was confirmed to be the first Omicron case in India.
Karnataka | 4 people arrested for providing a false RT-PCR report to a South African national who was later confirmed to be India’s first Omicron case. The patient, who was in quarantine, managed to leave the country via Dubai after producing a fake report: DCP Central Bengaluru
— ANI (@ANI) December 14, 2021
As per reports, the South African National who arrived in India on November 20 was found COVID positive at the KempeGowda International Airport Bengaluru and was quarantined for 14 days in a hotel called Shangri La. The South African was the owner of a software company in Bengaluru and in order to escape the quarantine, he contacted his company staff who in turn contacted a private lab in Bengaluru and bribed the lab technicians. The swab samples of the South African was replaced with that of a healthy person and a fake report was produced by November 26.
FIR has been filed against the South African by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). A case has also been registered against the management of Shangri La hotel. Among those arrested were two lab technicians of the private lab and two employees of the software company who helped in obtaining the fake report.
