Hospital bed scam: Searches at Bengaluru COVID war rooms

Bengaluru: Searches were carried out by police at the city corporation's COVID war rooms and data collected, in the backdrop of allegations of a scam in booking hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

The development comes two days after BJP MP Tejasvi Surya alleged that hospitals here 'blocked' beds in fake names to make money, at a time when COVID-19 cases were rising in Karnataka.

Surya said officials of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike 'colluded' with private nursing homes and hospitals to block beds and reserve it for exorbitant fees.

"Searches were conducted on Wednesday at eight zonal war rooms of the BBMP.

Lots of data has been collected," the city police said in a statement.

Eight teams were scrutinising all the data collected from the zones. Further action will be taken based on information taken out of the data, they said.

Police are also investigating the hospitals where four people were arrested for allegedly blocking beds in fake names for COVID-19 patients paying bribes.

So far seven people have been arrested in connection with the bed scam.

The Karnataka government has ordered reservation of 80 per cent of beds for COVID patients in private hospitals, in the wake of increase in cases.

With the spurt in coronavirus cases, the demand for hospital beds with ICU and ventilators have gone up.