New Delhi: The bed allocation scam at Bangalore Municipal Corporation which had made headlines in Karnataka has took new turn after one of the BJP MLAs has been accused of booking beds for his supporters by putting his agents.
Earlier, Kannada newspaper namely 'Vijay Karantaka' has revealed that Satish Reddy, one of the BJP MLAs who barged into Covid war room and reprimanded the officials for appointing Muslims at the war room allegedly tried to book beds for COVID patients who are his supporters over others.
Meanwhile, IAS Officers' Association is up in arms after a video showing Reddy heckling an IAS officer at the same war room, shared widely in social media. The IAS Officers' Association has wrote to Chief Minister Y.S. Yeddiyurappa demanding action against the culprits for manhandling an IAS officer.
"Mr. Yashavantha was part of the team of officers who had obtained additional hospital beds from private hospitals. But the officer did not yield to pressure to offer the additional beds to representatives of honourable members of the legislative Assembly. As a result, Mr. Yeshavantha was manhandled and abused in public…", the letter said.
A Police officer told PTI that the investigation is on but they are not relying on any social media video.
"We are not going by what's being circulated in the social media. We are limiting our investigation to what is there before us, that is, we are investigating only the bed blocking scam," the officer said.
Earlier, Congress youth leader Srivastva had shared a video alleging that Reddy was heckling an IAS officer at COVID war room.
"Few days before @Tejasvi_Surya 'raided' the BBMP War-room, Satish Reddy (BJP MLA who was with Tejasvi during the raid) & his supporters had manhandled IAS officer Yashwant at the same war-room! IAS Yashwantha had caught MLA's agents red-handed in Bed allocation Scam!," tweeted Srivastva along with a video.
According to reports, Reddy, who is MLA from Karnataka's Bommanahalli constituency, reportedly went to the war room on April 30 along with his supporters and demanded bed allocation for people of his constituency. When his demand was not met, they manhandled IAS officer Y. Yashavantha, who was in-charge of the war room.
Meanwhile, Investigation into the bed allocation scam at Bangalore Municipal Corporation has found no evidence against Muslim employees who have been fired after controversial BJP MP from Bangalore South, Tejasvi Surya, flagged their names.
Out of 205 staff, 17 Muslims working at Covid War Room of BBMP were targeted by BJP leaders including Surya and BJP MLAs Satish Reddy and Ravi Subramanya on May 4 after a bed allocation scam uncovered at BBMP or Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.
According to police, Nethravathi, Rohith, Venkat Subba Rao, Manjunath and Punith were arrested in the bed blocking scam.
On the other hand, Surya was also widely condemned for his communal slurs.