Bengaluru bed scam: Police nab two more after BJP MLA Sathish Reddy's aide's arrest

Cracking down on the Bengaluru bed scam, the city police have arrested two more people in connection with the case - Varun, a war room helpline worker, and Yashwanth. As per Bengaluru Joint CP Sandeep Patil, Varun allegedly passed on patients' contact information to Yashwanth who then demanded money from them. As of date, six people have been arrested in connection to the scam, including BJP MLA Satish Reddy's aide Babu.

Bengaluru police arrest two more in bed scam

These arrests come a day after Bengaluru police arrested Bommanahalli BJP MLA Satish Reddy's aide Babu as the suspected 'kingpin' of the scam. As per reports, Babu allegedly used Reddy's name to contact doctors, war room staff and act as 'broker'. Babu allegedly earned several lakhs by selling blocked beds, state reports. The role of Reddy, who had accompanied BJP MP Tejasvi Surya to BBMP when the Yuva morcha chief had pulled up officials, is yet to be ascertained by the police. Previously, police had arrested three people - Sudhir and Venkoba Rao and Anthony - a marketing executive from Sapthagiri Hospital in connection with the scam

What is the Bengaluru bed scam?

The scam came into focus after South Bengaluru MP and BJP youth leader Tejasvi Surya alleged irregularities in the allotment of beds to COVID patients in the city and accused the BBMP war room officials of running a racket to falsely book beds for money. According to Tejasvi Surya, BBMP war room officials had falsely booked beds, that were made for COVID-19 patients in exchange for money. The parliamentarian has alleged a scam of over 4065 beds in Bengaluru.

The bed allotment scam case was transferred to Central Crime Branch (CCB) for investigation after Surya and MLAs Sathish Reddy and Uday Garudachar confronted the BBMP war-room officials on the racket. The accusation includes giving beds to asymptomatic COVID-19 patients with a charge of Rs 40,000. The BJP Yuva Morcha president claimed that certain BBMP officials, Aarogya Mitra hospitals, and private agents were creating an artificial shortage by illegal activities. Surya visited the war room and read out a list of 17 officers (all Muslim) questioning how they were appointed.

Surya came in for severe criticism, especially former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, for allegedly giving the issue a communal colour for seeking to know from the government officials how 16 Muslims got a job in the COVID war room, in a live stream programme. Surya claimed that even before he went to the COVID-19 war room to expose the irregularities where he questioned the basis behind the appointment of 16 Muslims, the private agency, which got the contract to operate the COVID war room and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials had removed them from the job. 14 of the 16 officers were reinstated, but only 11 accepted to come back.