Fake COVID testing scam at Kumbh: Uttarakhand High Court grants protection to accused

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New Delhi: The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday (June 23) granted protection to executives of Max Corporate Services from arrest in the case related to the fake COVID-19 testing scam at Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.

The court asked the agency to cooperate with the investigating agencies. It asked the accused to appear before the investigation officer on Friday.

The Haridwar police had filed an FIR under several sections of the IPC, the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act against Max Corporate Services and two ICMR-accredited labs - Nalwa Laboratories and Dr Lal Chandani Labs Limited - for allegedly conducting around one lakh fake COVID-19 tests during Kumbh Mela.

A special investigation team (SIT) has been set up to probe the matter.

Justice N S Dhanik’s order came after the agency's partner Mallika Pant challenged the FIR, the petitioner's counsel Kartikey Hari Gupta said.

"Protection from arbitrary arrest was granted to my client in the light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Arnesh Kumar vs the State of Bihar case placing checks and balances on the powers of the police before an arrest," Gupta was quoted as saying by PTI.

Max Corporate Services had blamed the two ICMR-accredited labs it had engaged for the lapse before the court saying that it was just a service provider and the collection of samples and data entry were not its responsibility but that of labs.