BJP MLA's 'aide' charged in bed-blocking scam

In a major step in the investigation into the Covid hospital bed blocking scam, the CCB has filed a charge sheet against three people, including a man said to be a close aide of the BJP's Bommanahalli MLA, M Satish Reddy.

The 250-page charge sheet was submitted at the first ACMM court here by CCB inspector Sridhar Poojara and his team.

Babu, 34, the MLA's "aide", was arrested in late May. Incidentally, the MLA, along with fellow legislators and MP L S Tejasvi Surya, had "exposed" the bed allocation scam just days earlier.

A viral video of the lawmakers' raid on the BBMP's South Zone Covid war room showed Reddy demanding answers from officials as to why hospital beds were not available to common citizens.

Another video showed Reddy and his supporters heckling a BBMP official who had ordered Babu's expulsion from the war room.

A CCB source said the scam was run by Babu, a Begur resident named Netravati and her friend Rohit Kumar. All of them have been charged.

"The accused blocked the beds reserved (under the BBMP quota) in private hospitals and then sold them. The charge sheet lists the evidence provided by 40 people besides bank transaction details," the source said.

According to the source, Netravati and Kumar posted a message on social media, advertising hospital beds for Covid. Netravati answered the phone calls from citizens. She would ask Babu to get the bed, the source said.

She received Rs 80,000 from one person, Rs 25,000 from another and Rs 50,000 in the third case, and transferred all the money to Babu by Google Pay and PhonePe. Netravati and Kumar received a commission for their efforts.

"All this has been explained in the charge sheet," the source added.

The accused were in the process of selling the bed to another patient when the scam was busted, the source said, adding that the statement of the fourth person (the patient) has been included in the charge sheet.