Pramesh Jain

PHC Doctor and aide arrested by Annapoorneshwarinagar police for stealing and selling covishield vaccine illegally in Bengaluru:

The West Division police of Annaporneshwarinagar police on Thursday arrested a 25-year-old doctor and her associate for administering covishield vaccine to people at a house for a price of Rs 500 per shot .

The accused has been identified as,Dr. Pushpitha,25,medical officer of Manjunath Nagar Primary Health center and her associate Prema,34,a homemaker from ITI Layout.

Dr.Pushpita used to get the vials from the PHC center and vaccinate people at the house of Prema after she collected Rs 500 from each person.

DCP West,Dr.Sanjeev M Patil said,The Covid in Bengaluru city has showed many unexpected heroes from all corners of life likewise we have seen dark side also.

Among one such incident the vaccine that were to be given to a people in PHC center in Manjunathnagar were traced to place in ITI layout in Annapoorneshwarinagar police station limits.

A medical officer working at PHC centre Manjunathnagar,Dr.Pushpitha aged 25 years along with prema aged 34 years a resident of ITI layout were running a joint vaccination programme in Prema’s house.

Our witnesses have given information that this private vaccination programme was going on since 23rd of April and this used to happen almost everyday after 4 o clock in the evening.

Upon inquiry it is found that the doctor used to procure this vials from the PHC centre Manjunathnagar campus and would give to people here.

Who would be called by Prema our team has secured a Frozen vials carrier,vials used and unused,Syringes used and unused from the house of this accused Prema he added.

Senior officer,told media persons,our Annapoorneshwarinagar police inspector Lohith received a credible information about the private vaccination programme is being administered in a house in ITI layout.

As soon as the information was passed to Inspector he immediately passed the information to his senior officers and the senior officers instructed the Inspector to take all necessary measures and nab the miscreants.

Based on able guidance of DCP West, Dr Sanjeev M Patil,Inspector Lohith turned himself as decoy and visited the house to take a vaccine shot at their house.

After visiting the house and after confirmation that in the house they are administering vaccination illegally and are collecting Rs.500 for each shots from people who comes to take a vaccine shot at their house.

Based on this the Inspector detained them and conducted a search at their house and found used and unused vials and syringe in their possession.

The Inspector and his team arrested the duo and during interrogation the accused confessed the crime and it was revealed that the Medical officer used to steal the covishield vaccine from her center.

Dr.Pushpita was working in the PHC for the last six months and said to have vaccinated many people in the last few days.

We suspect that Dr.Pushpitha forged the records to steal the vials and store it at the house of Prema in a frozen vaccine carrier.

The vaccines are sanctioned by the government to the PHC centre to give it to the people who have registered at the government portals.

But this medical officer has cheated the government and to earn easy money and become rich in short time has landed in police net and is cooling her heels in jail.

The police have taken the duo into custody for questioning to ascertain about the racket and possible involvement of others he added.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP West,Dr.Sanjeev M Patil,ACP,UD Krishna Kumar,PI,Lohith and his team for the commendable job done by them in nabbing the duo and busting the private vaccination programme running illegally in house and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Pramesh Jain

The Central division cyber crime police on Wednesday arrested two persons including a nigerian national for cheating people on the pretext of selling Remdesivir and medicine to treat covid patients.

The accused has been identified as Mohammed Ismail Khadri,43,from Vidyaranyapura and his partner in crime Alade Abdulla Yusuf,26,from Nigeria and resident of Yelahanka.

Senior officer told reporters,there were series of complaints were registered in Central CEN police station in which the complainants stated that they received a whatsapp message from unknown number on their mobile number claiming they are from reputed Pharma and are into selling Remdesivir and other Covid related medicines.

And the said person used to ask the victims to send prescription and used to take money to procure the Remdesivir injection vials and other medicines.

Once anyone of the victim fall prey to this conman after receiving amount they would switch off the phone.

Based on series of complaints,DCP MN Anucheth,asked the ACP to form a special teams and to nab the miscreants.

The team swung into action and after getting a credible information the Central CEN police inspector,Praveen Babu and team zeroed in on both the accused.

During investigation the accused confessed the crime and after conducting searching in their house the police team have seized 110 SIM cards,four mobile phones and 10 bank accounts which were created using fake IDs.The police also asked the banks concerned to freeze Rs four lakh deposit in the bank accounts .

The team grilled both of the them and it was revealed that Khadri is owner of a mobile shop and used to repair mobiles and sell SIM cards.HE used fake IDs of the people to get SIM cards for his partner in the crime .

Khadri also used fake documents to open bank accounts which were used by the accused to transfer the money.

To make people believe they are from Pharmacy the accused created a website in a reputed name of a pharma company to lure gullible people offering to Remdesivir injections and medicine related to covid treatment .

The accused would ask the people to transfer money and switch off the mobile phones as soon as the money was transferred .

As soon as the transactions landed at a bank account,the accused would transfer the cash from one account to another to hoodwink the officials to block the transactions .

With their arrest the CEN police have solved four cases of online frauds reported in the recent past in the central Division.

We have seized the mobile phones and analyzing the all record details to ascertain their criminal network,he added.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant,has appreciated,Addl CP West Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP Central,MN Anucheth,ACP,Smt.Nazma Farooq,PI,Praveen Babu and their whole team who has done a exemplary and meticulous investigation in solving the case and nabbing them and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Pramesh Jain

Officials of the Railway Protection Force on Tuesday busted major Remdesivir injection Vials black marketing racket and arrested four staff of the railway hospital for running the racket .

Senior RPF Official said,the RPF officials received a credible information about the Remdesivir injection vials being stolen by Bengaluru Railway Hospital staff and are selling it in illegally charging exorbitant price from patients relative.

Based on a tip off,a team of RPF officials approached one of the accused near railway hospital close to KSR station and caught him red handed while handing over three vials of remdesvir injections .

The accused,an attender by profession,offered to sell three vials for a price of Rs.1.5 lakh.

based on his information the police arrested his associates including a staff nurse, ambulance driver and house keeping staff.  

Inquiries revealed that the accused are in the business for the fortnight and sold around 70  vials charging exhobirant price of Rs.50,000 each.

A detailed investigation by the team it has revealed that the accused would take the vials from the store which are meant for patients . 

Elaborating further the patient requires at least six doses of vials for complete recovery,but the accused would give him only three doses and keep the rest with them which they would sell it into black market.

The accused are selling the injections mostly in bulks to the medical representatives and efforts are on to track them down.

We suspect that there are insiders involved in this racket and efforts are on to track them down.

We have arrested 4 persons under Section 3 of Railway Property (Unlawful PossessionAct, including one contractual worker and Group C/D employees working in Divisional Railway Hospital.

All the accused have been produced before the court and have been remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation is in progress. Further, the staff involved have been suspended and stringent disciplinary action has been initiated by the Railway administration against them.

Finally Debashmita Chattopadhyay Banerjee Senior Divisional Security Commissioner of Railways, appreciated their whole staff for busting the Major Racket and arresting the accused successfully and a suitable reward will be given to the team for their meticulous investigation he added.

Pramesh Jain

A police inspector attached to Sanjay Nagar police station and two head constables, Manjunath and Panduranga reporting to her has been suspended by Commissioner of police Kamal Pant for beating a doctor while intrerrogating him in illegal sale of Remdesivir.

Senior officer said,The doctor complained against Kathyayini Alva and other cops identified as,Manjunath and Panduranga who has allegedly threatened him and beat him up during the interrogation.He also accused them of demanding Rs 5.5 lakh to relieve him from the case.

They detained a Bengaluru based doctor for two days as part of a probe into the illegal sale of Remdesivir and in which they inflicting third degree torture on him.

He was reportedly released only after he paid them Rs.5.5 lakh in cash.The doctor,who was beaten and bruised,recorded a video of his injuries and uploaded it on social media which went viral. 

He clarified that he did not play a part in illegally selling Remdesivir.

Sources in the police said Alva allegedly summoned the doctor on the pretext of questioning him about the illegal sale of Remdesivir and demanded that he pay the money to the family of a Covid patient who died during treatment.The patient was personally known to Alva sources said to media persons.

Based on Dr Nagaraj’s complaint,Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Dharmendra Kumar Meena instructed the JC Nagar sub-division,Assistant Commissioner of Police, Reena Suvarna,to conduct an inquiry and file a report. 

Meanwhile he also removed the inspector and her three staff from Sanjaynagar station and deployed them at the DCP office until further notice.  

The victim,Dr.Nagaraj from Sri Sai Hospital,was picked up by the Sanjay Nagar police on May 15 after they arrested a housekeeping employee and a doctor,Sagar,from another private hospital for selling Remdesivir for Rs.30,000  Rs.40,000. 

Based on Dr Sagar’s alleged confession,the police summoned Dr Nagaraj,but did not arrest him.

The doctor said I was tortured and beaten up so badly that I can’t even sit nor sleep,said Dr. Nagaraj in the video he released.The inspector not only took money to release me but threatened to kill me if I spoke about this to anyone,he alleged in the video which went viral.

After perusing the report,the DCP forwarded it to  Commissioner of police,Kamal Pant who issued the suspension order based on the report submitted by investigating officer and suspended all the three for assaulting a doctor and ordered a departmental inquiry against the three suspended cops.

BENGALURU: With experts signalling a rise in Covid cases among children during the third wave, paediatric specialists have advised ramping up existing infrastructure and keeping manpower in place to handle the surge. Dr Naveen Benakappa, Medical Superintendent of Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, pointed out that oxygen, medicines and emergency drugs, HFNC (High Flow Nasal Cannula), CPAP machines, ventilators should be increased so that no child is turned away.

“We will need more pediatricians and specialists to be sent to government hospitals handling children’s cases. Other health professionals handling adults can be trained for paediatric cases too. Hiring permanent staff is a lengthy process and therefore, contract staff can be recruited,” he suggested. He added that if the vaccination drive succeeds in covering most adults, the proportion of positive cases among them is expected to come down, while there will be an increase in cases among children.

The existing high-end ventilators, CPAP machines and HFNCs can be made operable for children, by resetting the software. Sources said that a paediatric task force will be set up by the government. When asked about preparation by the State Government, Health and Medical Education Dr K Sudhakar said that Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has already announced that an expert committee will be formed to guide and advise the government on mitigation of the third wave

BENGALURU: Karnataka on Tuesday saw a whopping 58,395 Covid patients being discharged, which significantly brought down active cases across the state from over six lakh to 5,75,028. While this is by far the highest number of discharges per day in the state, it is also the largest for any state in the country, with Maharashtra at number two at 52,898 discharges. As a result, Karnataka’s recovery rate jumped from 72.08 per cent on Monday to 73.68 per cent on Tuesday.

The state’s recovery rate has been improving consistently since May 8, except for two days on May 9 and 11, when it was lower than the previous day’s percentage. Since May 12, the rate has improved on all consecutive days. While active cases fell from 6,03,639 to 5.75 lakh across the state, it fell from 3,64,382 to 3,40,965 in Bengaluru.

The city’s recovery rate, too, has been increasing over the last three days, and between May 16 and 18, it has moved from 64.71 per cent to 67.29 per cent. Despite these encouraging figures, the mortality remained high with 525 patients reported dead on Tuesday, taking the state’s Covid toll to 22,838, up from 22,313 on Monday. Tuesday’s deaths are also the thirdhighest single-day deaths through the pandemic, the highest being 596 on May 10 and the second highest being 592 on May 7.

The mortality rate climbed to 1 per cent on Tuesday after having dipped to well below that point for a few days. Karnataka’s Covid tally since the pandemic broke out on March 8 last year touched 22,72,374, up from 22,42,065 the previous day, while the positivity rate increased from 8.01 per cent on Monday to 8.09 per cent. The positivity rate had dipped to as low as 4.63 per cent on April 4, but the massive surge with the second wave has forced it to rise sharply.

Bengaluru’s Covid tally stands at 10,73,072 cases (10,64,396 on Monday), with 298 deaths, taking the mortality rate from 0.91 per cent to 0.93 per cent. Tuesday also recorded Bengaluru’s third highest deaths in a single day. The city also saw 8,676 new cases, while 31,795 people were discharged in a single day.

Though the state is currently under complete lockdown till May 24, several leaders, including ministers, have expressed themselves in favour of extending it

BENGALURU: Discussions are on regarding extending the lockdown in Karnataka, but no decision has been taken yet on the matter, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said on Monday, as the State battles the second wave of COVID-19.

Though the state is currently under complete lockdown till May 24, several leaders, including ministers, have expressed themselves in favour of extending it.

The Karnataka government had initially announced 14 days “close down” from April 27, but subsequently imposed a complete lockdown from May 10 to May 24, as the cases continued to spike.

Revenue Minister, R Ashoka, also Vice-Chairman of Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, who has been batting for the extension of curbs, today said lockdown has been useful as daily fresh cases in Bengaluru have come down from 22,000 to 8,000 and it will be good to extend the shutdown.

Noting that because of lockdown, the number of daily cases have come down in Maharashtra and Delhi too, he said, three days before the current shutdown ends, senior ministers will meet under the leadership of the Chief Minister and take a decision.

Mines and Geology Minister Murugesh Nirani too said, it will be good if lockdown is extended for some more days.

Health Minister K Sudhakar, in response to a question about extending the restrictions, said it will be discussed at the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister.

Union Minister Sadananda Gowda too recently had said lockdown has to be extended if need be, as it has been yielding results, with major cities including Bengaluru witnessing decline in daily COVID positive cases.

Meanwhile, the Congress and JD(S) have urged the state government to provide relief, including financial and food, and come to the rescue of those whose livelihood has been affected by the COVID-19 induced shutdown.

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy today urged the government that the lockdown, if extended, should be “pro bono”, where economic and food relief to the needy is taken care of.

Meanwhile, as many as 97 people in the state contracted mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, as post-COVID complications in Karnataka, Sudhakar said on Monday.

“Till yesterday 97 people contracted this (black fungus) disease in the state,” Sudhakar told a press conference after a meeting with experts on the black fungal infection.

He, however, appealed to the people not to panic as it does not spread like COVID.

“It did affect a few people in the state, which I accept. Compared to previous years, this year it is more in number,” the Minister said.

Sudhakar, who is a medical professional, suspected that this disease comes from the usage of tap water.

“I appeal to the para medical staff, use only sterilised water extracted from the humidifier,” Sudhakar told the doctors and paramedics.

According to him, usage of excess steroids among the diabetic patients increased their sugar level, which eventually caused black fungus.

After contracting COVID, diabetic patients will have to control their sugar level, Sudhakar said, adding, those who did not control it fell prey to black fungus.

In view of the occurrence of mucormycosis among COVID patients, Sudhakar announced notifying regional centres in the state for its treatment.

These Centres are Mysuru Medical College, Shivamogga Institute of Medical College, Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences in Kalaburagi, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences at Hubballi, Kasturba Medical College and Wenlock District Hospital in Mangaluru.

The state has already requested the Centre to supply 25,000 doses of Amphotericin B, an anti-fungal medication.

State Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Monday said no decision has been taken on cancelling the 10th class examination and the second pre-university examination.

“We have not taken any decision on cancelling the SSLC or the PUC-II exams, which were postponed earlier in view of the rising COVID cases,” Kumar said in a statement.

Stating that reports in a section of the media were only speculation, he said the decision would be taken in the future and asked students not to get disturbed but focus on studies.

The government gave general promotion to the students from Class-one to Class-nine and also the first pre- university College exams in view of the growing number of COVID cases last year.

The government had conducted the SSLC and PUC-II exam last year.

Karnataka reported 38,603 new cases of COVID-19, and 476 fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 22,42,065 and the toll to 22,313, the Health department said on Monday.

The day also saw 34,635 patients getting discharged after recovery.

Bengaluru Urban accounted for 13,338 new cases.

As on May 17 evening, cumulatively 22,42,065 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 22,313 deaths and 16,16,092 discharges, a department bulletin said.

Total number of active cases in the state stood at 6,03,639.

While the positivity rate for the day stood at 39.70 per cent, case fatality rate (CFR) was at 1.23 per cent.

Among 476 deaths reported on Monday, 239 are from Bengaluru Urban, Hassan (29), Ballari (17), Kalaburagi, Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada (15), Tumakuru (14), Bengaluru Rural (13), Mandya (10), followed by others.

Hassan recorded 2,324 new cases, Ballari 2,322, Mysuru 1,980, Tumakuru 1,915, Belagavi 1,748, followed by others.

Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 10,64,396, followed by Mysuru 1,14,107 and Tumakuru 83,394.

Among discharges too, Bengaluru Urban tops the list with 6,90,291, followed by Mysuru 98,669 and Ballari 56,265.

A total of over 2,79,76,933 samples have been tested so far, of which 97,236 were tested on Monday alone.

BENGALURU: To help citizens who have lost their livelihoods and incurred losses due to the COVID19 second wave lockdown, the Karnataka government announced an economic relief package on Wednesday.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said at a cost of Rs 1250 crores, financial compensation, food security and moratorium has been extended to the most vulnerable sections of the citizenry in the State to mitigate the adverse impact of the lockdown. Karnataka has been under corona curfew since April 24. 

“The economic relief package is to help farmers, unorganised sector workers and comes at a cost of more than Rs 1250 crores. Despite the financial crunch we are facing we are announcing this package,” BS Yediyurappa said. Rs 10,000 compensation has been announced for floriculture and horticulture farmers for losses due to the lockdown. Some 20,000 floriculture farmers and 69,000 horticulture farmers are expected to benefit out of this announcement, the Chief Minister said. 

“Licensed and registered auto drivers and cab drivers will be given Rs 3000 financial assistance. About 2.10 lakh persons are estimated to benefit out of this. Rs 3000 will also be transferred to the bank accounts of construction workers registered with construction workers welfare board,” BS Yediyurappa said. 

Rs 2000 financial assistance has also been announced for unorganised sector workers like barbers, washermen, mechanics, leather workers, carpenters, tailors, coolies, ragpickers, household helps and street vendors. An estimated 3.04 lakh persons from the unorganised sector and 2.2 lakh street vendors registered with Atmanirbhar funds are set to benefit from the announcement, the chief minister said. 

Artists and artist groups registered with Kanada and culture department will receive Rs 3000. Schedule for repayment of loans availed by farmers and self-help groups from cooperative societies, land banks etc have been extended by three months. Apart from distributing five-kilo rice for each beneficiary already registered under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana and antyodaya scheme for May and June months free of cost, the State government will include an additional 30 lakh beneficiaries under this scheme and spend Rs 180 crore so benefits are extended to them. 

Those who have applied for BPL ration cards but haven’t received it yet will be given free 10 kilo rice for May and June while those awaiting APL cards will be given subsidised 10 kilo rice at Rs 15 per kilo. 

The Karnataka government last year during the first COVID19 lockdown had announced an economic relief package of Rs 1610 crore which included electricity subsidies for MSMEs, citizens and small businesses apart from financial assistance to vulnerable sections.