Bhopal: A man in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind district had to carry his ailing father to the hospital on a pushcart because there were no ambulances available, according to a report published on Saturday by The Quint. Three journalists have been booked for reporting this incident.
The incident was covered by journalists Kunjbihari Kourav, Anil Sharma, and NK Bhatele in Patrika, News18, and Lalluram.com, according to NDTV.
They were charged with violating Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 505-2 (statements creating or promoting enmity between classes), and Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2008 of the Indian Penal Code.
Based on a complaint made by Dr Rajiv Kourav, a medical officer at the Daboh Community Health Center, a first information report was submitted.
The first information report stated that the news stories are "false and baseless," according to NDTV.
The family allegedly did not call for an ambulance, according to an investigation team led by Bhind District Collector Sathish Kumar S and made up of officials from the revenue and health departments.
The team said that Gyan Prasad Vishwakarma, an old man, was initially taken to a private hospital rather than a government hospital.
The man's daughter Pushpa and son Harikrishna said, however, that they were forced to wheel the cart for around 5 kilometres after calling for an ambulance but not receiving one.
According to NDTV, Pushpa also refuted the administration's assertions that her family receives assistance from government programmes.
"We got just one instalment of the PM Awas Yojana," she said. "A team from the district administration took pictures of my brother's house."
Harikrishna claimed that he was forced to sign on a blank piece of paper by some government personnel.
However, the administration has not responded to this accusation.