India, Aug. 17 -- Nearly five years after three residents of a Mumbai housing society were booked for allegedly fabricating negative RT-PCR reports to bypass Covid-19 entry protocols during the lockdown, the Bombay high court has quashed the criminal case, observing that the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic had left "many people being on the brink of losing their sanity".

The case was registered after the society's security staff and chairman noticed discrepancies in RT-PCR certificates submitted by the three. Verification raised suspicion that the reports had been tampered with.

During the probe, police found that one of the accused had allegedly used a laptop and Adobe Illustrator to digitally create fake negative RT-PCR re...