Police nabs 12 people on charge of running fake RT-PCR certificate racket in Puri

Puri: The Puri Police have registered three cases and arrested 12 persons on the charge of running a fake RT-PCR certificate racket that provided forged documents to people for getting entry into the 12th century Shree Jagannath temple here.

While two such cases have been registered at Singhadwar police station another case is lodged at Kumbharpada police station in the pilgrim town in a span of a fortnight, police said.

An inquiry was conducted after getting input that few devotees are trying to enter the temple by showing fake RT-PCR certificate.

The Singhadwar Police station has arrested four accused persons of whom two belonged to Madhya Pradesh while the remaining two belonged to Puri town. One more accused is absconding, the police said.

Similarly, the Kumbharpada police station nabbed three accused persons including one devotee who used the fake RT-PCR certificate.

In the third case, the Singhadwar police station nabbed five accused persons including a devotee who used a fake RTPCR test report. The four others are gang members including the mastermind and prime accused. All the four belong to Puri, they said.

The police said that stern action will be taken against the accused person and appealed to people to desist from taking help from the racket when coming for the darshan of Lord Jagannath.

It is mandatory for devotees visiting the Lord Jagannath temple to produce the final certificate of COVID-19 vaccination or COVID-19 negative certificate (RT-PCR) of testing done within 96 hours prior to their visit to the temple.