Sushma Gowda (Correspondent)
A case of black marketing of Hospital Beds for COVID19 patients has been unearthed by Central Division police of Bengaluru Police and arrested three persons for Extorting Rs.1.2 lakhs from Covid19 patients relative to get ICU bed.
The central division police booked similar case of blocking beds and arrested three persons who are part of the racket.
The accused has been identified as,Manjunath@chandru,31yrs,Marketing executive,People’s tree hospitals,Venkatasubba rao@ravi,28 yrs,cardiac technician,people’s tree hospital,Puneeth,31yrs,Arogya Mitra,Suvarna arogya suraksha trust,department of health and family welfare.
Senior officer,told media persons,based on a complaint of hospital beds blackmarketing filed by complainant who stated in his statement that a woman identified as Laxmidevamma,was diagnosed with Covid and admitted in a Private hospital in Nelamangala.
She required higher medical treatment and was brought to People Tree hospital.However there were no ICU beds available.
The accused Venkata Subbarao and his associate Manjunath,employees of the same
Hospital connived with Punith(currently working as Arogya Mitra in MS Ramaiah Hospital) and they demanded and extorted Rs.1,20,000/- from Lakshmisha,the son of the victim for allotting a bed in MS Ramaiah hospital.
Lakshmisha paid Rs 50000 through Google pay and Rs.70000 in cash after which they were allotted a bed in MS Ramaiah hospital.However Laxmidevamma died a few hours later.
Today,based on the complaint of Lakshmisha,a case was registered in Sadashivnagar Police Station.Three persons have been arrested so far and further investigation is continued.
This incident brought to light when Chethan, brother of Lakshmisha contacted Dial 112 and informed the police inspector of Sadashivanagar he added.
The arrests came a day after Bengaluru South MP and BJP Yuva Morcha president Tejasvi Surya alleged that there was a bed blocking scam in the city where the government officials and employees connive with hospitals to block the beds meant for Covid-19 patients,as ordered by the state government.
He said 4,065 hospital beds in private hospitals in Bengaluru were blocked by the scamsters.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant,has appreciated Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP Central,MN Anucheth,and his team as Sadashivanagar police inspector and other staff of Namma 112 who has taken the grievance very seriously and alerted the Sadashivanagar police inspector to unearth the racket and arrested three persons and for the exemplary work done by the team a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.
