On Wednesday May 5, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) confirmed the arrest of four accused for their alleged involvement in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) bed allocation scam in Bengaluru.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil said that two FIRs filed in the city were transferred to the CCB.

“We have arrested four accused so far. Four others are being questioned. Searches have been conducted in al eight zonal war rooms”, Patil said.

Earlier on Tuesday, DCP (South) Harish Pandey had confirmed the arrest of a social worker and her nephew for their alleged involvement in the bed allocation scam. The police team had approached them posing as the relatives of a COVID-19 patient who needed a bed.

Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya had, on May 4, alleged that a major bed allocation scam was unearthed during a surprise audit of the centralised bed allocation system, along with three BJP MLAs from South Bengaluru on Tuesday.

The ‘bed mafia’ calls up the COVID-19 patients with BU number to find out if they are asymptomatic and in home isolation. The beds are then booked against that particular BU number. These blocked beds automatically get unblocked if the patient does not turn up at the hospital within the next 12 hours. This bed is now manually re-alloted to the patients referred by the agents, who charge a hefty fee of ₹40,000 for a bed. These agents scout for patients on social media, where people are posting appeals for oxygen and ICU beds.

“During the audit, we noticed that 4,065 beds had undergone auto-unblocking. After we called up the patients against whose name the bed was initially blocked (booked), we learnt that they were all in home isolation and had never got admitted to the hospital. The BU number of a single patient in home isolation is being used to block 5-20 beds, which are then sold to other patients for a hefty sum,” Surya alleged.

Surya has now approached Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to rehaul the bed allocation software and to further ensure transparency in the mechanism.

“Had a conversation with Nandan Nilekani this morning and sought his help to revamp BBMP bed allocation software. Lots of gratitude to him for putting very best tech architects on the job immediately. Yet again, Nandan Nilekani has proved he is always available for Bengaluru!” Tejasvi Surya said in a tweet.

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After Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya exposed the artificial shortage of hospital beds in Bengaluru created by a nexus of Arogya Mithras stationed at various hospitals, he has now approached Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to ensure transparency with regards to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) bed allocation software.

“Had a conversation with Nandan Nilekani this morning and sought his help to revamp BBMP bed allocation software. Lots of gratitude to him for putting very best tech architects on the job immediately. Yet again, Nandan Nilekani has proved he is always available for Bengaluru!” Tejasvi Surya said in a tweet.

Had a conversation with Sri @NandanNilekani this morning & sought his help to revamp BBMP bed allocation software

Lots of gratitude to him for putting very best tech architects on job immediately

Yet again, Sri Nandan Nilekani has proved he is always available for Bengaluru!

— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) May 5, 2021

“This team of tech architects, also assisted by technology think tank iSpirit Product Nation, will redesign the bed booking software to make it efficient, transparent and minimise manual intervention. I thank the tech volunteers for helping this cause. People of Bengaluru will be grateful to you!” he added.

Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on Tuesday (4 May) alleged that there are enough beds in Bengaluru city but unfortunately they were running a racket of false blocking beds and then allocating them to those they please.

Surya was visibly upset and said those involved in this racket will surely face an unpleasant end themselves as they have compromised the lives of hundreds of people out of which many died due to lack of access to beds despite there being enough of them available.

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