Covid India: Two held for allegedly selling beds in hospitals

Bangalore - Social worker, nephew circulating WhatsApp messages offering help to patients.

A ‘social worker’ and her nephew were arrested in Bangalore on Tuesday for allegedly ‘selling’ beds to Covid-19 patients at hospitals in the city.

Harish Pandey, deputy commissioner of police (south), told the media that Nethravathy, 40, who claimed to be a social worker, and Rohith Kumar, 22, her nephew, would circulate WhatsApp messages offering help to patients find beds.

“They might have had contacts in the municipal corporation war room which deals with bed allotment as well to get their work done,” he said. The police are also probing whether they had links with private hospitals.

A police team, posing as relatives of a Covid-19 patient, approached the two seeking beds at a hospital. The duo would charge anywhere between Rs20,000 and Rs40,000, depending on the financial standing of the patient and relatives for a hospital bed. A case has been registered against them for fraud and cheating and the cae has been handed over to the crime branch.