Three held for running fake pathology lab

The arrested accused are Dinesh Gupta,his brother Anil and their partner Santosh Singh. The STF team also recovered several fake reports on letterhead of the Mumbai-based lab Reliance Life Sciences lab and plain letterheads of other major labs like Charak,Mahi and Religare.

STF Deputy SP Arvind Chaturvedi,who led the operation,told The Sunday Express that they had received a complaint from a patient Punit Kumar Singh,undergoing treatment at the gastroenterology department of the SGPGI. The doctors had advised Punit for a specific blood test,conducted only at the Reliance Life Sciences lab.

When Punit’s uncle was looking for a lab,a few persons met him outside the hospital and took him to the SD Pathology,claiming that it was the only authorised centre for collecting samples for the Reliance Life Sciences lab. He paid Rs 2,500 for the test on April 5 and the lab handed him over the report on April 13,said the STF officer. When the SGPGI doctor looked at the report,he grew suspicious over its authenticity and asked Punit’s relatives to get it verified from the Reliance Life Sciences lab in Mumbai. It was found that no such test was conducted there.

Chaturvedi said the STF team has conducted a probe,which revealed that many labs functioning near the SGPGI had no specialised equipment and were not authorised to collect samples from leading labs. But without official complaint against them,the STF could not raid them. Dinesh told the STF that his father is employed with the SGPGI,who helps him getting tests forwarded to his lab. Chaturvedi said VP Singh would also be named in the case for helping the accused.