NEW DELHI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Local government in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has directed the officials in Haridwar district to register a police case against private testing laboratories allegedly for conducting fake COVID-19 tests during the religious Kumbh Mela (fair), local media said Thursday.
"Uttarakhand government has ordered the Haridwar district administration to register first information report (police case) in COVID-19 testing scam during Mahakumbh. Order issued to file a case against labs from Delhi and Haryana, which conducted testing at five places in Haridwar during Kumbh Mela," Subodh Uniyal, Uttarakhand government spokesman, was quoted by a local news agency Asian News International as saying.
The private laboratories, mainly based in Delhi and Haryana, were engaged by the state government to conduct COVID-19 tests of the visitors (mostly Hindu pilgrims) during the Kumbh congregation.
In April this year, thousands of Hindu devotees gathered in Uttarakhand's Haridwar town to take bath in the Ganges as part of a ritual. Devotees continued to throng the river banks even as India was witnessing a more severe second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
The congregation, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, was held from April 1 to 30.
Experts had warned that the congregation would trigger an exponential increase in COVID-19 cases and the festival could turn into a super spreader event.
Last week, authorities in Haridwar ordered a probe after reports emerged that over 100,000 fake tests were conducted during the religious gatherings. Reports said the laboratories apparently indulged in providing fake reports to meet the daily testing quota of 50,000 tests set by the Uttarakhand high court.
Nearly two dozen private laboratories had been hired to conduct testing during the congregation.
At least seven million devotees are believed to have participated in the religious gathering, reports said. Enditem