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17 arrested for sending migrant labourers to UP and Bihar in ambulance
And that’s how the Gurugram police unearthed a racket that has been ferrying migrant workers to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in ambulances in violation of the ongoing national lockdown
At midnight, Wednesday, two ambulances stopped at the police picket at Vatika Chowk in Gurugram’s Sohna road.
There were five people in each; one of the five was on a stretcher, and an IV drip was attached to his hand; the other four said they were with the sick person; the same hospital had issued documents to both patients who, to close the loop, were suffering from the same aliment.
And that’s how the Gurugram police unearthed a racket that has been ferrying migrant workers to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in ambulances in violation of the ongoing national lockdown. The operation was the brainchild of Suresh Kumar from Adampur in Hisar district, who also goes by the sobriquet Doctor, although, as can be expected, he isn’t one.
The 10 people being ferried in the two ambulances were migrant workers; they had paid Rs 9000 each (half in advance) to go home to Khandsa in Champaran, Bihar, almost 1200 km from Gurugram.
The policemen manning the picket tried calling the numbers of the hospital as mentioned in the documents but found out that these weren’t in use.
“We brought all of them to the police station and questioned them individually. They revealed that they contacted a doctor in a private hospital who demanded Rs 9,000 from each person to send them home in an ambulance,” said Mukesh Kumar, station house officer, Badshahpur police station
Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that the interrogation led the police to Suresh Kumar
It turns out that the 10 men worked in different export houses and were all tailors. The national lockdown, declared on March 25 to fight the spread of the coronavirus disease , and extended by 19 days to May 3 on Tuesday, had forced their units to close. Jobless, the men waited it out during the first phase of the lockdown and then decided to escape home.
Kumar was working in a hospital in Sector 10 A for the last three years -- as manager, not a doctor. He was arrested on Thursday. He confessed that he used a network of ambulances to send labourers home -- after figuring out that this was a good way to make money during the lockdown.
“Suresh Kumar has already sent a few ambulances to Lucknow, Agra, Bhagalpur, Gopalganj and Champaran in the last 20 days. He and the ambulance owners used to split the money,” said SHO Mukesh Kumar.
The police have recovered medical prescription pads, a rubber stamp of a hospital identified as Halson hospital, which closed a few months ago (it was on Basai Road in Old Gurugram) according to Kumar.
Sixteen suspects -- four ambulance drivers, 10 migrants and two contractors -- were produced before the duty magistrate and were sent to 14-day judicial custody. Suresh Kumar will be produced in court on Friday, the police said.
Sangwan said the police are questioning Kumar because they suspect his involvement in a drugs racket that stretched from Gurugram to Bihar.
Police commissioner Muhammad Akil said ambulances attached to the mortuary in Gurugram are under the scanner and all the ambulances crossing borders will be thoroughly checked and calls made to hospitals concerned. “Anyone found involved in any illegal activity will be booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code,” he said.
A case under sections 120 B(conspiracy), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 420 (cheating), 467 (Forgery of valuable security), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) of Indian Penal Code was registered at Badshahpur police station on Thursday.
