4 tourists booked for forging Covid reports

Our Correspondent

KULLU, AUGUST 9

The police have booked four tourists for trying to enter the district with forged Covid test reports.

Kullu SP Gaurav Singh said Sagar Kumar, Pankaj Kumar Sarvan and Ram Vilas from Delhi and Jai Chand from Ghaziabad tried to enter the district in a car in the wee hours today. They were stopped at the Ropa barrier.

Upon checking, their Covid test reports were found to be fake. He said the tourists had forged the test reports by using specimen referral form (SRF) ID of some other lab. They were arrested under Sections 465 of the IPC and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act and sent to an institutional quarantine centre. The SP said 162 tourists had come to the valley in July. The tourists, having a hotel booking of not less than five days and with a Covid-negative report from an ICMR-approved lab, were being allowed to enter the district.

Many tourists had been sent back from the barriers due to lack of proper documents. Cases had also been registered against a few for misinforming the police to enter the district. Police personnel, posted at the check posts, had been instructed to be alert so that no one could enter the district illegally. He said precautionary measures were being taken to contain the spread of the pandemic.

So far, there is no report of any person testing Covid positive, who had come to the district for the tourism purpose.

Residents oppose tourism activities

Residents say it is risky to allow tourists to come to the valley when the graph of cases is on the rise. The visitors can get infected during travelling even after seeking the Covid-negative report and this can prove disastrous.