Pramesh Jain

The North Division police of Subramanyanagar police and JC Nagar police in a major crackdown arrested six persons since Wednesday including a lecturer of a nursing college and staff of many private hospitals while they were selling Remdesivir injections vials in Black.

The accused has been identified as,Janardan,Medical Representative,JP Nagar,Deepak,Medical Representative, nagawara,Lokesh,Receptionist Hospital, Yelahanka,Dinesh M,27,lecturer in little flower college of nursing and his associate Shankar,42,a lab technician from Gayathri diagnostic centre situated in 6th block Nagarabhavi,and Johny H,34,HR manager of St. Theresa hospital.

Senior officer told media persons,a major drive against Blackmarketing of Remdesivir vials was carried out in our North Division in the leadership of DCP,North,Dharmendra Kumar Meena,team headed by Subramanyanagar police and JC Nagar police have cracked down on Black Marketing of Remdesivir vials.

Based on tip off recieved by Subramanyanagar police inspector, Sanjeev Gowda HB,that two men selling Remdesivir injection in public.

A team of police from Subramanyanagar on wednesday raided a place near private hospital junction in Rajajinagar 1st block and caught Dinesh M,27, who works as lecturer in little flower college of nursing and his associate Shankar,42,a lab technician from Gayathri diagnostic centre situated in 6th block Nagarabhavi and recovered 12 remdesivir injection vials,a bike two mobile phones cash Rs 7,500 from them. 

During investigation the accused told the police that he was sourcing the vials from the lab technician of the hospital identified as Anand and sharing the profits.

The duo confessed that they have sourced the injections from their contacts identified as Chethan,a lab technician from Ashraya hospital  and Pawan,boys hostel mess incharge of a little flower college of nursing.Chethan and Pawan are currently on the run.

Following the leads,the police also arrested Johny H,34,HR manager of St.Theresa hospital and recovered three Remdesivir vials,a car,two mobile phones and cash Rs 5,000 from him.

Similarly on Thursday, the JC Nagar police in separate incidents arrested three men selling Remdesivir in black to the public .

Based on the information the JC Nagar police raided a place near a private hospital on JC Nagar main road and arrested,Janardhan NS,34, a medical representative,Deepak,34,delivery boy of a medical store and Lokesh,28,a receptionist at a private hospital .

The police recovered 10 vials of Remdesivir, three bikes and seven mobile phones and cash Rs 16,000 has been seized from them.

We have taken the accused into custody for further investigations and efforts are to secure the arrest of others who are involved in the black marketing and presently on the run,Dharmendra Kumar Meena,DCP, North Division,said .

Meanwhile the CCB officials also arrested 4 accused in separate incidents and recovered 12 Remdesivir injections from them on Thursday.

DG-IGP Praveen Sood,tweeted telling,90 persons have been arrested and 38 cases booked for black marketing Remdesivir injection or packing fake remdesivir.Our drive will continue against those trying to profiteer in this tough situation.Well done.Keep the pressure on such unscrupulous activities he said.

The Karnataka police have been on their toes to curb black marketing of the drug since Mid-April with several such cases reported from Bengaluru, Mysuru and other cities.

Commissioner of police,Kamal Pant said in his tweets,@BlrCityPolice’s crackdown on black-marketing rackets continues unabated!.

@DCPNorthBCP has arrested 6 persons involved in black-marketing of #Remdesivir antiviral drug. Each vial was being sold at 8X times than the govt fixed rates. Further investigation is underway.

Anyone involved in these rackets will not be spared. The public is requested to share the info about any such attempt.Confidentiality will be maintained he said by tweeting.

Meanwhile,Bengaluru DCP,North,Dharmendera Kumar Meena,expressed confidence that the force would find the source of diversion of the drug soon.We will reach the source of diversion of this drug and take action against whoever is involved.

People are requested to reach out to the police to give any information they have on the same. We will act swiftly while maintaining confidentiality, he said.

A case has been registered under various sections of the Drugs Control Act and Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating),against the accused in Subramanyanagar and JC Nagar police station and further investigation is on.

Finally,DG&IGP, Praveen Sood,has appreciated Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant,Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,Joint CP Crime, Sandeep Patil,DCP North,Dharmendra Kumar Meena,DCP Crime-1, KP Ravikumar,ACP,Malleswaram Sub-Division,KS Venkatesh Naidu,ACP,JC Nagar Sub-Division,Smt.Reena Suvarna,PIs,as,Sanjeev Gowda HB,D R Nagaraj,PSIs,as,Latha N,Vinod J,and other crime staff who has done a tremendous and meticulous investigation led them to nab 6 people and successfully seized 25 Remdesivir vials anti-viral drug from them and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Courtesy:The Cognate

By Shaik Zakeer Hussain

In a startling revelation, BJP MLA Satish Reddy, who a couple of days ago was seen in a video asking if BBMP was a Hajj Bhavan or a Madrasa to recruit Muslims, and made allegations against officials for running a racket of allocating hospital beds to COVID patients in exchange for bribes is now accused of allotting beds to his supporters in the same case.

Satish Reddy, the BJP legislator from Bommanahalli reportedly put his agents in the BBMP war room, who in turn were booking beds for his supporters. Reddy and his agents are alleged to have issued threats to officials in the war room to prioritise his supporters over other

The paper reported that the beds were also being sold for monetary exchange to distressed patients.

On Tuesday, Reddy accompanied by Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya, Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya, and Chickpet MLA Uday Garudachar held a press conference accused city municipal officials of accepting bribes to allot hospital beds. They alleged that a “nexus of BBMP officials and frontline health workers” were creating artificial scarcity and that beds were being booked under the name of asymptomatic patients who were in home isolation.

The BJP legislators also picked up on Muslims working in the BBMP COVID war room and took objections to them working there. In the video of the incident that has since gone viral, they were seen barging into a BBMP COVID war room and asking officers present if BBMP was a Hajj Bhavan or a Madrasa to recruit Muslims.https://www.youtube.com/embed/cWS2ZwsfUfM?feature=oembed

The South zone war room has 205 designates telecallers, of which only 17 were Muslims. In the video, Surya is seen asking the BBMP official what process was followed to recruit the volunteers in the COVID war room, and read out a list of 17 people, who all happened to be Muslims. Surya, Reddy, and the other BJP leaders were seen asking officials to remove the Muslim employees from the war room.

The Cognate got in touch with some of the sacked employees, who said that they were not given any reason why they were removed from their jobs.

BENGALURU: After 24 patients lost their lives in Chamarajanagara owing to oxygen shortage among other reasons, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa held an emergency meeting with oxygen manufacturers and suppliers in Bengaluru on Monday. As per the Chief Minister’s own estimate, the state requires approximately1,471 tonnes of oxygen per day given the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. In his meeting, Yediyurappa said a ‘green corridor’ for oxygen transportation will come up in the state to ensure timely supply to hospitals. 

The state can manufacture 812 tonnes of oxygen per day, including from industrial sources. With many industries coming forward to convert industrial oxygen for medical purposes, the amount produced in the state has increased slightly. The state also gets supply from the Centre. The daily allocation was 300 metric tonnes till the last week of April. It went up to 800 metric tonnes after Yediyurappa, in the Chief Ministers’ meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanded an increase in the allocation of oxygen to the state along with the drug Remdesivir. The state is also expected to receive four tankers of liquid oxygen from Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. 

At the meeting, Yediyurappa asked officials to ensure minimal wastage of oxygen supplied by the Centre. “We have to reduce the time taken to refill empty oxygen tankers,” the CM said. Taking a cue from the Union Health Minister’s idea to explore the feasibility of converting existing nitrogen plants to produce oxygen, the state government is looking to convert nitrogen and argon tankers available for supplying oxygen instead. Given the shortage of manpower, the state is also looking to hire LPG tanker drivers to ferry oxygen tankers in emergencies.

An appeal has been made to manufacturers to coordinate with officials directly to ensure smooth supply of oxygen to hospitals. Meanwhile, the clinical expert committee on Covid-19 in the state has provided guidelines for minimising the wastage of oxygen. These guidelines also lay down the responsibility of the health team regarding the judicial use and the responsibility of the hospital administrators in monitoring and auditing oxygen use. 

BENGALURU: As frenetic investigations and corrective measures got under way a day after the alleged bed allocation scam in Bengaluru was exposed – reportedly by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and other BJP leaders – a senior official, known for his efforts in Covid management, expressed grief over social media posts linking him to the incident. He has also raised objections over the issue being “communalised”, with 16 people belonging to a minority community coming under the under the scanner.

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice P Vishwanatha Shetty initiated suo motu proceedings into the alleged scam and directed the Lokayukta police to conduct an independent probe and submit a report within three weeks.The city police too registered two criminal cases in Jayanagar police station, arresting nine people, including two doctors. Four others are being questioned.

Preliminary investigations have revealed the involvement of staff members of private hospitals too. The accused have been charged with breach of trust, cheating and extortion under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, besides provisions of the Disaster Management Act. Both the cases have now been transferred to the CCB for further investigation.

The BBMP Chief Commissioner, Gaurav Gupta, said the issue is being parallely investigated by the South zone special commissioner. The BBMP Joint Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) and in-charge of Covid Care Centres in Bengaluru, Sarfaraz Khan, expressed pain over being dragged into the alleged bed booking scam, with social media posts demanding that he be held “accountable” although he is not involved with the Covid war room. 

BENGALURU: Karnataka reached yet another scary Covid peak since the onset of the pandemic by recording 50,112 new cases in a day, breaching the 17-lakh mark in the total number of cases at 17,41,046. The State’s positivity rate for the day was 32.38 per cent. The State is also not far behind from reaching the second spot in the country in the highest number of cases, as Kerala in the second spot has 17,43,933. But Karnataka is at the second spot in the number of active cases at 4,87,288 and has an active case ratio of 27.5 per cent.

The State recorded its highest single day Covid deaths at 346. Most of them were from Bengaluru Urban at 161. Deaths were also reported from Vijayapura, Ballari, Hassan, Uttar Kannada, Mysuru, Kolar, Mandya, Tumakuru, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Ramanagar, Gadag, Ballari and Raichur. The total number of Covid deaths is now 16,884. The case fatality rate stands at 1 per cent.On the brighter side, the State reported the highest discharges at 26,841, taking the total to 12,36,854. The State’s recovery ratio stands at 76.1 per cent which is lower than in many districts.

Bengaluru Urban recorded 23,106 new cases and the total number of positives are now 8,63,380. Total Covid deaths are at 7,006. Across the State, 86 are positive with the UK Strain, six with South African strain and 62 with the double mutant B.1.617.The State crossed the one-crore mark by inoculating 1,00,72,795 people.Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar tweeted, “K’taka has received 1,05,49,970 doses from Centre & State Govt has procured 3 lakh doses. Vaccine is our biggest weapon to defeat pandemic & Govt is leaving no stone unturned to vaccinate everyone at the earliest.”

Pramesh Jain

While BJP legislators brought the alleged bed allotment scam to light,the Jayanagar police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a social worker and her nephew who are suspected to have contacts with BBMP war-room staff.

The accused,Nethra (40) and Rohith (22) who hail from Begur were caught after the police conducted a sting operation.A team,posing as relatives of a patient with COVID-19,and approached them for beds.

They would charge anywhere between Rs.20,000-40,000 depending upon the financial status of the person asking for a bed,said Harish Pndey, DCP, South.

The accused would circulate messages on WhatsApp offering to help patients to get beds. According to the police,they have contacts in the BBMP war room from where they get the allotment.

We also suspect that they have contacts within the private hospital network, which is being probed,” Mr. Pandey added.

The Jayanagar police have registered a case of cheating and fraud.They suspect that more people are involved in the scam.

A case of fraud and cheating has been registered in Jayanagar station under fraud and cheating . There are more people involved and are being questioned, he added.

Considering the magnitude of the case , Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant has handed over the case to the Central Crime Branch police for a detailed probe.

As the case was transferred to CCB officially by Commissioner of police Kamal Pant, on tuesday night next day the CCB held a high value meeting with officials to unearth the Nexus and nab all the culprits.

The legislator Tejasvi Surya visited Commissioner office to held a meeting and gave details about the scam to Commissioner of Police,Dr Tulasi M, was too present in a high value meeting called by MP,Sandeep Patil, DCP Crime-1 KP Ravikumar,with other officers were part of the meeting.

The CCB have Taken Dr.Rehan,South zone war room in charge into custody to question in details to ascertain the possible involvement of others in the racket.

The police have also arrested Dr.Suresh of Bommanhalli war room incharge,but since he is covid positive,police are not questioning him.

The two doctors among the four arrested by CCB in the racket.The duo would instruct the war room staffer Shashi Kumar to block and unblock the beds using the key IDs.

Chandan Kale,PSI of Jayanagar police station who initially probed the case and filed a complaint against the accused said that the accused would get the information about vacant beds across the city and using block thd beds in the name of covid patients who are home isolated and not even opted for the beds

The accused would then inform their contacts on the field who are in turn approach the people who are desperately looking for bed.

Once the deal is clinched the touts would then reach the hospital and alert the accused who would unblock the beds to facilitate the admission of patients who had paid them.

Using this modus operandi,the accused have blocked and unblocked the bed at Appollo hospital in Jayanagar on May 1 2021 in the name of home isolation patient to get the bed for patient identified as Chandrasekhar,a police officer said.

There are many people involved in the racket who are absconding.

The police are also suspecting the involvement of many private hospitals and questioning the accused to ascertain the identifies of such hospitals and their role.

Meanwhile the CCB officials are checking the records of the other war rooms in RR nagar, Mahadevapura,Yelahanka and Dasarahalli as part of the Investigation.

CCB Police teams conducted search operations across eight Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike war rooms in the city before detaining staff for questioning.As many as seven people, including two doctors,have been questioned.

Senior officer said,that it appears to be software discrepancies in the blocking and unblocking of beds.

Sandeep Patil,Joint Commissioner of Police,said two FIRs have been registered as part of the investigation.The identities of the arrested accused have yet to be revealed.

The arrests comes a day after BJP legislators uncovered an alleged scam in the BBMP South zone war room where beds were blocked and later sold.

CCB officials,who have taken over the case,have also taken custody of Nethrvathy and Rohith.

Many touts who are part of the racket who have switched off their phones and are on the run.Efforts are on to track them down to ascertain their involvement,a senior police officer said.

After BJP MP Tejasvi Surya’s big reveal on what he called a “bed-blocking scandal” in Bengaluru, blaming his own party-controlled civic body, a video has exposed shocking communal comments made in his presence against 17 Muslim employees at a Covid war room.

A video shows Tejasvi Surya, the Bangalore South MP, in the municipal Covid war room with three BJP MLAs, grilling officials. One of the MLAs with him is his uncle.

Mr Surya had alleged that a “nexus of BBMP officials and frontline health workers” is conspiring to “buy” these beds after snatching them away from people who were dying without ICU care.

BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) booking site says all beds are full. So many people are getting discharged,but the BBMP says all beds are booked. There is a nexus of BBMP officials,Aarogya Mitra (a frontline health service) people in hospitals and outside agents,” he said.

Mr Surya alleged the beds were being initially reserved in the names of Covid patients in home isolation who were unaware of the allotment. After they failed to show up for admission the bed was “auto un-blocked”, he said, claiming this had happened “in thousands of cases”.

BBMP officials would then, he said, find someone to “buy” the bed.

Beds at government hospitals, and at private hospitals that have reserved a certain number to be filled by the state, are allotted via requests to a centralised number.

This is the most disgusting thing that can take place in a pandemic,the BJP MP declared, adding that Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had promised action against those involved.

Pramesh Jain

The Doddaballapura police on tuesday busted a gang and arrested a gang of five persons including a car dealer who were getting the stolen cars from UP and Delhi and selling in and around the city after creating fake registration certificates with the help of a tout in Regional Transport office who is also part of their gang.

The accused has been identified as Suresh,28, Lokesh,28,Renuka Prasad,29,cab drivers by profession,Srinivasa,31,a second hand car dealer and Hemanth Kumar,36,a tout at the RTO in Doddaballapura.

The police recovered seven cars worth Rs 50 lakh from them along with the fake RC and Smart cards which the accused have had stolen from the RTO office .

Senior officer told reporters,The gang was busted on Friday when alert police constables Panduranga C and Kumar who were on patrolling duty confronted Suresh, Lokesh and Renuka Prasad,a cab drivers moving in a car and tried to escape soon after noticing the car.

Suspecting something fishy in their behaviour, the duo took them to the station and informed their seniors.

A detailed questioning by the officials led the accused to confessed the crime and and it has revealed that the have a car theif from Delhi who is stealing the cars for them in Delhi and UP and hand it over to them .

The accused change the registration number of the cars and Hemanth Kumar who is accessed in the RTO would steal the smart card and RC certificates to fill the details and create fake documents.

Once the documents are ready,Srinivas would sell the car to his clients.

The accused have not only stolen the cars from Delhi and UP but also from various parts of Bengaluru,Mangaluru,Belagavi and Tamilnadu.

The accused are operational for the last two years and suspected to have stolen and sold many more cars, a senior police officer said .

The police have booked the case of vehicle thefts against them and remanded to judicial custody while further investigations are on.

The police have also alerted the Delhi counterpart about the car thief who was stealing the car on their behalf.

Finally IGP,Central Range,Chandrashekhar,has appreciated, Bengaluru Rural SP,Ravi D Chennanavar,Addl SP,Lakshmi Ganesh,DYSP,Rangappa,CPI,Naveen Kumar,PSIs,as,K Venkatesh,Ranganath,and crime staff as,Panduranga,Sunil,Muniraju,Arjun S Lamani,Shivaraj,Nataraj and puttana has been appreciated for the exemplary and commendable job done by the team and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.