NEW DELHI: An employee of Delhi's AIIMS and his sister have been arrested for allegedly demanding Rs five lakhs for getting a COVID positive patient admitted in the ICU of a hospital, police said on Tuesday.
Police nabbed Pankaj Kumar (45), who works in the haematology lab of the AIIMS and his sister Kawalpreet Kaur alias Mamta (36) who is a housewife, from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district after the call detail records revealed their location, they said.
Complainant Haripal told the police that a person named Bhushan Kumar and Sunil kumar had taken Rs 2.8 lakh for the admission of his COVID positive wife to the Safdarjung Hospital here, officials said.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered.
Both Bhushan and Sunil were interrogated.
Bhushan said they knew the complainant's brother-in-law Ravinder Pal Singh who had contacted him for arranging an oxygen cylinder for his sister as Bhushan runs a manufacturing unit where welding work is done, according to the police.
"Bhushan arranged an empty oxygen cylinder for Ravinder Pal Singh and on April 30, Singh again contacted Bhushan for getting his sister admitted in some hospital as she was in a critical condition.
"Thereafter, Bhushan contacted his acquaintance Pankaj Kumar for admission of Singh's sister," Pranav Tayal (Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini).
Pankaj told Bhushan that admission to any hospital during this pandemic was difficult but it could be managed if some money could be arranged, police said.
He told him that Rs five lakhs was needed for admission of the patient in any hospital and sent his sister's mobile number, saying she can manage to get the patient admitted, the officer said.
Bhushan then shared Mamta's contact number with patient's son who further contacted her and got his mother admitted in Safdarjung Hospital, police said.
Pankaj and his sister demanded Rs 5 lakh for getting the patient admitted in Safdarjung Hospital.
After the complainant's son delivered Rs 2.8 lakh to them, the duo fled away to Mandi, the officer said.
"During interrogation, it revealed that Pankaj, his brother Santosh and one of his two sisters Kruna, all work at the AIIMS in Delhi, whereas, his sister Kawalpreet Kaur is a house wife and her husband was jobless for some time. Seeing it as a lucrative opportunity, Kawalpreet insisted her brother to demand Rs five lakh from the patient's family," the DCP said.