1 address used for 3,825 Covid tests at Kumbh: Officials

An intersection on the Dehradun-Haridwar highway was used as the address of 3,825 people who were shown to have got tested for Covid during the Mahakumbh in April, investigators looking into allegations of large-scale fake rapid antigen tests during the holy event said on Friday.

The address entered in the official records is ‘Nepali Farm, on Haridwar-Dehradun-Rishikesh highway’ and lies in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district, just 11 kms away from Har-Ki-Pauri ghat, one of the principal sites of the Kumbh.

A special investigation team (SIT) spotted this address against the names of 3,825 tests. “Apart from using single phone number multiple times, a single address against the names of several people has also come into light. We are tracing and contacting each and every phone number and verifying addresses also.,” said SIT investigating officer Rajesh Shah.

Investigators said the incident underlined the scale of fake testing at the event, which was attended by 9.1 million people amid a devastating surge of Covid cases across the country. Weeks after the event, officials in several states traced local infections to Kumbh returnees.

Allegations of fake testing at the Kumbh surfaced two weeks ago after a Faridkot resident complained to the authorities that he received a message for collecting his Covid-19 report despite never having been tested. The complaint triggered a probe that unearthed roughly 100,000 fake rapid antigen tests.

Three firms – Delhi-based Lalchandani Labs, Hisar-based Nalwa Labs and Noida-based private agency Max Corporate Services – were booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code, disaster management act and epidemic diseases act last week. Days later, all three firms approached the high court separately to quash the FIR and denied the charges.

At present, three separate probes are looking at the allegations: one by the police, one by the district administration and one by the mela administration.

Nepali Farm is an intersection on the highway from where one can head to Dehradun or Rishikesh while coming from Haridwar. Many local residents said that during the Mahakumbh, some private labs set up testing camps there but didn’t provide any authorised slip of testing details or even the name of the lab..

“We were handed out a white paper slip on which, with a ball pen, testing lab personnel put on the date April 10, 2021 and said if anyone asks for Covid report while entering Haridwar, you can show this slip. As there was no number or related information, we could also not check the report status. It was the same for other passengers and local people,” said Shikha Rawat, a local resident who was tested for Covid on April 10.

Haridwar chief medical officer Shambhu Kumar Jha said that mass irregularities in Covid-19 testing have come to light during the Mahakumbh.

Sharad Pant, owner of Max Corporate Services, denied the allegations. “We were there only as facilitators and as service providers, real data feeding, testing was done by the said two agencies Nalwa and Lalchandani. Whatever irregularities or multiple usage of addresses or phone numbers was done during the Mahakumbh testing can only be answered by these laboratories,” he said.

Both Lalchandani labs and Nalwa labs were unavailable for comment. Both labs have denied the charges.

Activists questioned how the irregularities went unnoticed. “It’s a matter of serious concern as they put lives of people in danger through such wrong entries and testing malpractices when the country was battling second wave,” said Anup Nautiyal, founder of Dehradun based Social Development for Communities Foundation.