Officers With Cyber Expertise Should Probe Bed Allocation Scam, Says Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil to file a report of the investigation carried out in the two first information reports (FIR) filed to probe the alleged the scam related to allocation of hospital beds to COVID patients in Bangalore.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar said "It is necessary for the state to consider whether an investigation team consisting of officers having expertise in the field such as cyber crimes are part of the special investigation team." It added "The decision shall be taken immediately by the state government in this regard."

During the hearing the bench orally observed that "Officers of cyber cell should be part of the investigation. The examination of data by some expert is required."

The state government orally informed the court that eight persons have been arrested so far and the investigation as per order dated May 6 is being monitored by the IPS officer.

The police had started the investigation following an allegation by BJP Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya. It was claimed by Surya that bribes are being taken to allocate Covid beds. He also stated that a nexus of BBMP officers, Arogya Mitras and certain private agents is behind this scam. This had led to an artificial shortage of beds in the city.

The court had directed the state government to place on record the probe report after Advocate G R Mohan had brought to the notice of the court about the two FIR's being registered in the scam.