Bengaluru: A video purportedly showing health workers burying inappropriately some bodies of COVID-19 victims in a large pit allegedly in Ballari district in Karnataka has surfaced, triggering an outrage on social media.
A top official in the district, the native of state Health Minister B Sriramulu, said they were inquiring into it.
In the video, the workers wearing personal protection equipment are seen bringing bodies in black sheets from a vehicle parked nearby and dropping one after another into the large pit, dug up with the help of an earthmover.
A man who posted the video first on YouTube claimed it happened in Ballari. It went viral on social media drawing widespread condemnation over the manner in which the dead were handled and people demanded stringent action.
"In all, eight bodies were dumped in this fashion in a single pit," an eye-witness claimed.
Ballari Deputy Commissioner of S S Nakul said he too has noticed the viral video in the social media.
"We have ordered an inquiry," he told reporters in Ballari on Tuesday. The district reported 12 COVID-19 deaths on Monday.
Nakul said five more people succumbed to the coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total fatalities in the district to 29 so far.
In a similar incident, the body of a 44-year old COVID-19 victim was thrown into a pit in Puducherry earlier this month, triggering public outrage and a few health workers were suspended.
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Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
