The police who had booked a data entry operator at a war room in Anekal taluk, at the behest of the nodal officer in charge, for allegedly mismanaging bed allocation and causing the death of a patient have concluded that he was not involved.
During the course of their investigation, the police realised that the staffer, Babu Sadiq, had been trying to help a family in distress after the condition of their relative suffering from COVID-19 took a turn for the worse. The patient later died, following which the nodal officer of the Anekal taluk war room, Mahesh Kumar S.S., registered a police complaint.
Complaint
A day after 17 Mulsim personnel from the BBMP South Zone war room were targeted in the alleged bed-allotment scam, Dr. Mahesh Kumar on May 5 filed a complaint with the HSR Layout police against Mr. Sadiq, accusing him of negligence of duty which led to the death of a COVID-19 patient. The police registered an FIR against the data operator under the Disaster Management Act and other Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In his complaint, Dr. Mahesh Kumar accused Mr. Sadiq of allotting two regular beds and an HDU bed to a COVID-19 patient in need of an ICU bed at three hospitals. The patient succumbed due to lack of treatment. “However, while investigating the case we found that Mr. Sadiq had done it at the insistence of the family members. There were no ICU beds available, and when he conveyed it to the distraught relatives they insisted he allocate the patient a normal bed. They said they would convince the hospital to provide an ICU bed,” said a police officer.
He allotted them a bed as per their request, but the family failed to convince the hospital to get them an ICU bed as there were none available. They reportedly called Mr. Sadiq again and requested him to try with another hospital. He complied but in vain. The third time, he was able to find an HDU bed which the family agreed to, but they still could not get an ICU bed and the patient later succumbed.
“He did not receive any money but was following the family’s requests. We summoned and questioned the family members to ascertain the facts, and cross-checked with another staffer before concluding that he was not guilty,” said a senior police officer. He added that they discussed the investigation with Dr. Mahesh Kumar and would file a report to the court concerned seeking further action.
