Two held as Bengaluru police busts fake RT-PCR certificate racket

According to police, the arrested persons have been identified as 25-year-old Mukesh Singh and 39-year-old Nagaraj aka Om Shakt both of whom are residents of Bengaluru. The main accused hails from Rajasthan.

The police in its statement said the duo was running this racket for quite some time and charged Rs 700 per certificate. The police got a whiff about the racket through their intelligence network.

"Two police officials posing as travellers approached the duo and sought RT-PCR negative reports which enables people to travel anywhere. The duo's modus operandi was simple as they used to collect Aadhaar cards and never collected swab samples to issue these certificates," said the police in its statement.

The police said they conducted a raid when their decoy policemen received information that 'their certificates' were ready. During the raid, the police seized five fake Covid negative certificates and mobile phones from them.

The police has registered a case and is investigating the matter.