Bengaluru: The two accused, who were arrested on Wednesday in a case related to the fraud and malpractice in the allotment of beds on the BBMP portal revealed that they were paid a commission of 10 percent for the allocation of each bed.
The accused have been identified as Netravati (40), an event manager, and Rohit Kumar (22). According to the accused, they had been circulating messages on several social media platforms offering help to the patients and their relatives in securing hospital beds.
Explaining the modus operandi, a police official said that they might have had connections in the BBMP war room which deals with bed allotment.
After the patient pays the amount, the 'agents' get a commission of 10 percent, the official said.
Read: After bed-blocking racket expose, BBMP reveals over 3000 beds vacant in Bengaluru
Meanwhile, police are also looking at the possibility of whether the accused have had connections with private hospitals in the city.
The police started the investigation after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya alleged that city municipal officials were taking bribes to allocate beds in city hospitals.
Read: BJP MP Tejasvi Surya alleges bed-blocking in Bengaluru hospitals
According to police, the accused used to block the beds in hospitals in the name of asymptomatic COVID patients who were in home isolation and later allot those beds to other patients after taking a bribe.
Karnataka reported 50,112 new COVID cases and 346 deaths in the last 24 hours, the state health department said on Wednesday.
With the new cases, the case tally reached 17,41,046. As many as 26,841 people have recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours. The total number of active cases stands at 4,87,288.
Row over Tejaswi Surya's allegations
After MP Tejaswi Surya's allegation of BBMP officials' involvement in the scam, Congress MLA UT Khader said the MP tried to give a communal angle to the issue by mentioning names of officials from a single religious community.
"An honest investigation should be conducted and the guilty should be punished. There are various zones in Bangalore. This said case happened in South Zone. Each zone has a war room. The head of the war room is IAS officer Tulsi Maddineni and another officer was Veerabhadraiah. However, their names were not mentioned. But BBMP Joint Commissioner for Solid Waste Management Sarfaraz's name was taken. What is the reason for this," Khader asked, addressing a press meet held in Mangaluru.
"Of the 214 accused individuals in the case, only 17 hail from a minority community. However, Tejasvi Surya only mentioned the names of these 17 people at his press conference."
"Tejaswi Surya should answer to the people of the state, what is the intention behind this," the Congress MLA lashed out.
Meanwhile, BBMP Joint Commissioner for Solid Waste Management Sarfaraz Khan, who is also in charge of Covid Care Centres in Bengaluru, on Wednesday put up a Facebook post, expressing pain over being dragged into the alleged BBMP bed booking scam.
Also Read: Shocking! hospital staff fled after 8 covid patients die in ICU
Khan said he was shocked as he was not involved in the war room. He also expressed grief that a communal angle was being given to the issue. The WhatsApp screenshot posted by Khan and being circulated on social media lists 16 names of officials from a specific religious community.
The recruitment of doctors or any other staff in the war room is the job of the health department and respective zones of BBMP. It has zero connection with me. I have been working day in and day out, arranging for oxygen, oxygen concentrators for all CCCs to save precious lives,” Khan wrote in his post.
As a consequence of being deployed on the frontline, Khan's entire family had reportedly contracted Covid-19. Khan filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Police and cyber cell.
After his post, MP Tejasvi Surya called Khan and clarified that miscreants were targeting him as he is from the “community”.
Surya said he had heard about Khan’s good work, and made it clear that he was with him on this issue. An audio clip of the Bengaluru South MP's clarification has gone viral.
