West Bengal: Touts caught red handed in SSKM Hospital

Kolkata: A tout racket was busted at the SSKM hospital, with the mastermind-Mohd. Najim being arrested by the Bhowanipore police.

In a further development in the case, the police arrested two more touts Bunty Dutta (26) and Rahul Lal (26) on a tip off on Monday.

Bunty Dutta is a resident of East Midnapore and handled patients from outside Kolkata, while Rahul, who is a resident of old SSKM quarters liasoned with the hospital authorities for arranging beds and "quick" consultation with doctors.

The trio also arranged for platelets and blood at higher than normal costs. In similar cases at the state’s premier hospitals, a total number of 12 touts have already been arrested as of now, reports TOI.
As per sources, the two accused were caught red handed while persuading patients’ relatives to take their services while paying higher costs for patient tests and other facilities. It was a case outside the orthopedic ward.

The police confirmed that the two flaunted their claimed know-hows with the insiders within the hospital and claimed that they could arrange reports within no time for a price.

"The money demanded was directly proportional to the spending power of the patients. Rahul's grandmother was a sweeper at SSKM's eye department and Rahul soon became an important member of the fourth class employees' union under the tutelage of controversial leader Rajen Mullick who was earlier questioned by the police at Lal bazaar,” quoted police.

The police officer said "We had set up a trap and arrested both the accused," said the officer. The cops though say the major hindrance in ridding the hospital of touts is the non-reporting of such fleecing by the patients and their relatives. "There have been instances when we even had to book anti-social elements under the Arms Act in order to free the campus of them," said a top south division officer. The cops said that besides maintaining vigil in plainclothes by both local police and the detective department, it has been decided to compile a list of known touts operating in the hospitals and put up their photos across emergency and the main wards.