Seven arrested for BBMP bed scam, further investigation in progress

Bengaluru: On Wednesday, seven people were arrested for being a part of the Covid bed allocation scam. This consisted of four people including two doctors.

Joint Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Patil informed that two FIRs filed in the city have been transferred to the CCB. He said, “We have arrested four accused so far. Four others are being questioned. Searches have been conducted in all eight zonal war rooms.”

There were two doctors who were detained for questioning on Wednesday. The police officer said, “It appears to us that some loopholes in the software used for bed blocking were exploited by those linked to the process. We have interrogated several people associated with different zonal war rooms in Bengaluru, of which two are doctors.”

On Tuesday, Harish Pandey, DCP (south) had arrested Nethravathy, a social worker and Rohith Kumar, her nephew. Both of them were arrested at a sting operation conducted by the police.

Pandey said, “Our team approached them for beds posing as relatives of a Covid-19 patient. We then realised that the duo, from Begur, would charge between Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000 after understanding the financial status of the person seeking a bed.”

The other two accused are Dr Rehan who was in charge of the BBMP South Covid-19 War Room and Dr Suresh who was in charge of Bommanahalli war room and his staffer Shashi Kumar.

A senior police officer affirmed, “Dr Rehan is in our custody as we interrogate him to ascertain the possibility of more people involved in the racket. Meanwhile, Dr Suresh tested positive for Covid-19 and hence we are yet to question him. These doctors are suspected to have taken the help of Shashi Kumar to block and unblock beds using BU (Bengaluru Urban Covid-19 patient identification) ID numbers.”

In the meantime, three others were arrested by officers of the Central Division of Bengaluru City Police for their involvement in black marketing of hospital beds.

DCP (Central) M N Anuchet confirmed the name of the accused as Venkata Subbarao, Manjunath and Punith, based on a case registered at Sadashivanagar police station on Wednesday. He said, “The victim was made to pay Rs 1.2 lakh for getting a bed for his father at M S Ramaiah Hospital. While Rs 50,000 was transferred via Google Pay, another Rs 70,000 was taken by the accused in cash after a bed was allocated in the hospital.”

In the meantime, another officer stated that the patient was first admitted to a private hospital in Nelamangala after being Covid positive. The patient was then taken to People Tree hospital in Yeshwantpur as they needed higher medical requirement. But no ICU beds were available there. The officer said, “Venkata Subbarao and Manjunath, who worked at People Tree, connived with Punith who works as the Arogya Mitra in MS Ramaiah Hospital. They demanded and extorted Rs 1.2 lakh from the complainant. However, the patient succumbed to Covid-19 a few hours later.”

The police also said that the victim’s brother had dialled 112 helpline number to report the incident and it led to the case being filed at Sadashivanagar police station. Further investigation is underway.