Video shows CM convoy holding up ambulance; police deny it

MANDYA: A video that purportedly shows a woman patient trudging up to a hospital in Mandya district’s Nagamangala taluk on Monday after her ambulance was allegedly stopped by the CM’s convoy has gone viral on social media.
The video, beamed by some news channels on a loop on Tuesday, sparked outrage in the state. Mandya police, however, dismissed the incident as fabricated since the woman didn’t travel by an ambulance or there was no medical vehicle — either private or government-owned one — in sight in the ninesecond video.
The footage shows a woman walking with three male companions on a highway, with one side of the road empty and the other chock-a-block with vehicles.Sources said the alleged incident took place between 12.30pm and 1.30pm when chief minister Siddaramaiah was heading back to Bengaluru from Nagamangala after inaugurating a slew of development projects. Sources claimed that when the CM’s convoy zipped on the Srirangapatna-Bidar highway, police reportedly stopped other vehicles at the Nagamangala taluk office junction. An ambulance, too, was reportedly held up, about 500 metres from the taluk government hospital.
Despite pleas by relatives of the patient on board the ambulance, police allegedly didn’t give the ambulance the go-ahead. The woman patient and her relatives walked the distance to the hospital. Commuters stuck in the gridlock filmed the incident and uploaded it on social media.
Police officers who investigated the case said no ambulance was stuck in that traffic. A police officer said: “It’s true a woman patient was seen walking on an empty stretch of the highway along with her male companions. We are conducting an inquiry into the incident.”
Mandya superintendent of police G Radhika told TOI she spoke to the patient’s husband and checked with him whether they were ferried by an ambulance.
The police officer said: “Shankar told me they came in an autorickshaw and it was stuck far behind other vehicles. Sensing the traffic jam wouldn’t clear up soon, the driver told them to get down and reach the hospital, about 100 metres away. I spoke to Dr Shivakumar, who treated the woman at the government hospital. The doctor said the woman was treated in the OPD and discharged within hours. The story on social media has been manipulated.”
There was no response from the chief minister’s office about the incident.