Arogya Mitra among 3 held in Bengaluru’s ‘bribe for bed’ scam
According to Bengaluru CCB, trio coordinated in blocking and unblocking Covid beds
BENGALURU:
The Bengaluru Central Crime Branch police have arrested three persons, including a Health Department official, in the ‘bribe for beds’ scam which was exposed recently by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya. Earlier, the CCB had arrested 4 persons on Friday in connection with the scam, according to a CCB press release.
The three accused are Shashidhar, an Arogya Mitra, and Venkat Rao and Sudhir Umarani who were working in two private hospitals. The alleged modus operandi was to coordinate with Shashidhar to block and unblock beds in their hospitals. The other four accused are Rohit Kumar, Nethravathy, Rihan and Shashi Kumar.
Arogya Mitras are supposed to coordinate with SAST (Survarna Arogya Suraksha Trust) in ensuring that 50 per cent of beds in private hospitals are reserved for government-referred Covid patients.
Speaking to the media, Joint Commissioner (Crime) Sandeep Patil said, “Shashidhar worked as an Arogya Mitra, while Rao and Umarani were working at Sparsh Hospital (RR Nagar) and Punya Hospital (Basaveshwar Nagar).”
‘Hand in glove’
According to the CCB, the three accused blocked real-time data entry to BBMP’s bed management system. A police officer said that even after patients were discharged or died, the accused did not update the bed management system but blocked those beds and provided them illegally to other patients.
Around 18 persons were questioned on Friday with regard to the bed allotment scam, including war room, hospital and ambulance app staff.
Also Read: 100 hours after Surya’s exposé, BBMP’s Covid bed allotment revamped https://thebengalurulive.com/100-hours-after-suryas-expose-bbmps-covid-bed-allotment-revamped/
Also Read: Bed-for-bucks scam: Case handed over to Bengaluru CCB https://thebengalurulive.com/bed-for-bucks-scam-case-handed-over-to-bengaluru-ccb/
Also Read: Sadashivnagar cops nab Arogya Mitra, 2 others for hawking hospital bed https://thebengalurulive.com/sadashivnagar-cops-nab-arogya-mitra-2-others-for-hawking-hospital-bed/
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