A resident of an upscale highrise off the Bypass was arrested on Tuesday for posing as a representative of a superspeciality hospital in the city and collecting swab samples for Covid test, police said.

Soumitra Chowdhury has been booked for cheating and forgery based on a complaint by officials of the hospital.

Chowdhury had created and circulated a WhatsApp message with a web link with his photograph and name saying he was an authorised employee of the hospital, the police said.

“According to the hospital’s complaint, this person was earlier employed with the hospital. He is no longer attached with the hospital,” an officer of East Jadavpur police station said.

“In the message he kept circulating on WhatsApp, he presented himself as a representative of the hospital to win the confidence of people and collect their swab samples for a Covid test.”

Chowdhury had claimed in the message he had started a private laboratory, which had tested over 200 samples in the past few months.

“He has claimed to have been collecting samples for Covid tests. We are still to verify if these are correct,” the officer said.

Allegations have surfaced he would overcharge people for Covid tests although the government has fixed the rates for tests.

“Hospital officials have said he not only cheated the hospital by impersonating as a staff but he also tarnished the hospital’s image by overcharging people,” the officer said.

Cops will investigate the authenticity of the reports issued from the laboratory in the Picnic Garden areas, the police said.

Last week, officials of a private laboratory in Netajinagar were arrested in connection with false Covid test reports.

A bank manager, who had tested negative from the laboratory tested positive during a retest. He died in hospital later.

Based on his family’s complaint, the laboratory officials and the owner had been arrested.

Scrap dealer

A resident of Khardah in North 24-Parganas was arrested on Tuesday for siphoning off nearly Rs 3.6 crore from the bank account of a woman who lives in Chennai, the police said.

A team from the Salt Lake cyber crime police station picked up Samiran Saha, a scrap dealer, from his house based on a complaint lodged by an official of the bank, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

Saha had managed to change the woman’s mobile number registered with the bank and had transferred the money to multiple accounts in the names of various people.

He had forged documents and opened the accounts, the police said.

The bank got to know of the forgery when the woman complained. “The money trail led us to Saha,” the officer said.

A Salt Lake court has sent him to 14 days’ judicial custody.