By PTI
AURANGABAD: Two men, who had tested positive for coronavirus in a rapid antigen test conducted at a city-based zoo, sent two dummy patients to a medical facility by offering Rs 10,000 to them in order to avoid hospitalisation, police said on Wednesday.
The fake patients were arrested by the Aurangabad city police from a civic-run COVID-19 facility soon after their real identity came to light on Monday, while one of the actual patients, Gaurav Kathar, was nabbed on Wednesday, police said.
Search is on for another patient named Gagan Pagare, they said.
“Siddharth Garden, a zoo cum park in Aurangabad reopened after a long time. As per the coronavirus protocols, if any person visiting it has not received both the doses of COVID-19 vaccines, they have to undergo a rapid antigen test on the spot. On Saturday, when Pagare and Kathar went to the zoo, they tested positive for the infection in this test conducted there,” a police official said.
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“However, instead of getting admitted into the hospital for treatment, they sent two youths in their place by offering Rs 10,000 to them,” he said.
The fake patients, identified as Alok Rathod and Atul Sadavarte, were brought to the Meltron Covid Care Centre of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Saturday by a person named Sabale in his car, he added.
According to him, after their admission, they kept on asking the doctors to shift them to another facility.
On Sunday, they also produced a referral letter from another private hospital in Aurangabad.
Following this, the in-charge of Meltron facility, Dr Vaishali Mugdadkar, instructed the hospital staff to keep a close watch on the two suspicious patients and file a complaint if they try to step out.
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But the two men later revealed that they were sent to the centre as dummy patients by the actual ones.
After it came to light, the police arrested Rathod and Sadavarte on Monday, he said.
Kathar, a resident of Mhada Colony in the city, was arrested by Vedant Nagar police on Wednesday.
Police said that after the incident came to light, they tried to search Kathar at his home, but he was finally nabbed close to the Meltron hospital itself.
Search is on for Pagare and Vijay Mapari, who allegedly worked as a middleman in the case, they said.
