Bengaluru Covid bed allocation ‘scam’: 3 more held, total arrests by CCB now 7

With three more arrests confirmed on Monday, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Karnataka Police has so far apprehended seven people in the BBMP bed allocation “scam” in Bangalore.

The latest accused to be arrested by the CCB have been identified as Shashidhar, Venkoba Rao, and Sudhir Uma Rani. “While Shashidhar worked as an Arogya Mitra, Rao and Rani were working as staff members at Sparsh Hospital (RR Nagar) and Punya Hospital (Basaveshwar Nagar),” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil confirmed.

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CCB officers said the three accused allegedly blocked real-time data entry to the Central Hospital Bed Management System hosted by the BBMP. “Even after patients were discharged either after recovering from Covid-19 or succumbing to the infection, the accused did not forward the data to their jurisdiction BBMP war room to be updated into the bed management system. Instead, they blocked such beds and allowed admission to other patients illegally,” an officer who is part of the investigating team said.

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The officer added, “This has led to many other deserving patients suffering without timely treatment.”

Meanwhile, four others accused to have links to the scam, namely Rohit Kumar, Nethravathy, Rihan, and Shashi Kumar, are in police custody since Friday.

According to CCB officials, a total of 18 persons were questioned on Friday with regard to the bed allotment scam, including doctors in war rooms, hospital staff, and staff in charge of the ambulance app.