Delhi: Ambulance driver held for demanding Rs 8,500 to ferry COVID patient

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested an ambulance driver for allegedly demanding Rs 8,500 to shift a COVID-19 patient, officials said on Saturday.

Police said 30-year-old Pramod Kumar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, was arrested after a complaint was lodged by a man named Irshad alleged where he alleged that he was charged Rs 8,500 for shifting a patient for a distance of five kilometres, they said.

The complainant alleged that he had to shift his COVID positive relative from Apollo hospital in Jasola to Holy family hospital.

The ambulance driver demanded Rs 8,500 to shift the patient for a distance of five kilometers, a senior police officer said.

The police sent a decoy client who asked Kumar to shift a patient from the Apollo hospital to Holy Family hospital, officials said.

This time, the ambulance driver demanded Rs 9,500, the officer said.

"After some bargaining, he agreed to take the patient for Rs 8,500. The decoy customer gave him Rs 8,500 cash. The accused was then apprehended," Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Meena said.

In a similar case in northeast Delhi, a man named Satish, a resident of Sonia Vihar, made a PCR call on Friday, complaining that D K Ambulance Service was charging a high price to shift a patient.

"The complainant said through Twitter, he came across a tweet where D K Ambulance Service was charging Rs 10,000 for a short distance of four kilometres.

"To verify the facts, he called the office of the ambulance service. He asked them to provide an ambulance to shift a patient from Sonia Vihar to Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital. He was asked to pay Rs 15,000," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said.

Thereafter, he made a PCR call and provided the printout of the receipt, they said.

During investigation, the accused was identified as Devendra.

He was the owner of D K Ambulance Services and runs it from his residence.

He was providing services to shift patients through hospitals and social media, police said.