8 nabbed for collecting money on pretext of helping patients

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 23

The suspected racket of money collection on the pretext of helping patients has turned out to be true.

Yesterday, Police Commissioner Rakesh Agrawal ordered all SHOs to conduct an immediate check in their respective areas, following which eight persons were nabbed.

“We have registered an FIR for forgery under section 420 of the IPC against eight persons for collecting fake donations in the name of patients. Five persons have been arrested,” said Agrawal.

Those arrested have been identified as Harpreet, alias Honey, of Ambedkar Nagar; Karan, Gulshan, Bablu Kumar of Ram Nagar and Kanwardeep. John Bains, Aman Sharma and Krishan Singh of Islam Ganj are at large. The police have recovered Rs 13,700 and the donation box from the suspects.

Agrawal said the suspects collected money from public at chowks in the city while promising to provide financial help to needy patients.

Yesterday, the police received a tip-off that some persons were collecting money near hospitals on the pretext of helping needy patients, but they had no details of the patients. Later, the police issued an advisory that such persons should get a letter from hospitals with patients’ name.

Sukhwinder Singh of Gill village, a guardian of patient Bhawangurpreet Singh, alias Sunny, had complained to the police that they did not authorise anybody to collect donation in the patient’s name. The suspects managed to get a photograph of the patient and started collecting donations for his treatment. They did it on their own and gave not a single penny for Sunny’s treatment.