A day after Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya and others accused several people in BBMP COVID-19 war room of running a bed-for-bribe scam, BBMP Joint Commissioner Sarfaraz Khan has filed a complaint with the Bengaluru Police Commissioner against his name being circulated in the social media as responsible for the misappropriation. Sarfaraz has requested the Bengaluru Police Commissioner to direct the Cyber Cell to identify the culprits spreading the false message and book them as well as stop the circulation of the message.
Stating that he had “no relevance, role or any authority over the agency operating COVID Hospital Bed Management System or the war rooms” Sarfaraz says that the war rooms are managed by the respective Zonal Commissioners of BBMP.
On Tuesday, Tejasvi Surya, in his press conference had said that the investigation by his office has unearthed a “dishonourable and an unholy nexus” of representatives of zonal helplines, BBMP officials and hospitals, which allegedly created a false scarcity of beds. He said in as many 4000+ instances, the BBMP in-charge books the bed in the name of an asymptomatic patient as soon as he or she is informed of a vacant bed.
Soon after, messages started being circulated on social media with the names of the 16 people allegedly involved, all of whom were Muslims. The provocative, false messages also claimed a communal conspiracy behind the scam. Though Tejasvi did not take Sarfaraz's name, many communal forwards spread in BJP groups pinned the blame on the Joint Commissioner. One such message that TNM got said, "Questions arise how many peacefuls have lost lives. JTCP SARFARAZ has to be made accountable" (‘Peacefuls’ is a derogatory term used to refer to Muslims).
Sarfaraz Khan also posted on his Facebook account that he is pained that his name has been dragged in the same. He had said that the war room is headed by the Special Commissioner for Health and Sarfaraz’s job is to take care of the BBMP COVID-19 Care Centres and Solid waste Management.
Sarfaraz had further said that a communal angle is given to this issue. He said that he had been working diligently to arrange for oxygen, oxygen concentrators for all COVID-19 care centres. In addition, he said that he has also converted the Haj Bhavan into a 140-bed oxygenated COVID-19 Care Centre and that 50 ICUs were being set up at the cost of Haj Committee funds. “I would like to say that 90% occupancy in Haj Bhavan is our cost of Haj Committee funds. I would like to say that 90% occupancy in Haj Bhavan is our brothers from other religions and 10% of them are Muslims” said Sarafaraz Khan in his Facebook post.
BBMP JC Sarfaraz Khan who is in no way associated with war-room dragged into bed scam by @Tejasvi_Surya & team. JC posts a note sharing his pain on FB.
— vinaysreenivasa ವಿನಯ (@vinaysreeni) May 5, 2021
We are all struggling to find beds, instead of helping us, Surya is causing more pain. Can't tell you how sick I feel. pic.twitter.com/fD1sRu6Zri