The driver of a private ambulance has been arrested Wednesday, June 9, after allegedly trying to sexually assault a COVID-19 patient at a restricted ward in Kalaburagi district, Karnataka, India.
The accused has been identified as a 23-year-old Premsagar, also knows as Pinto. Pinto, an ambulance driver at Gulbarga Institute of Medical Science (GIMS) was seized by authorities on Wednesday noon for his violent crime, reported The New Indian Express.
His 25-year-old victim was reportedly admitted to the cardiology department of GIMS, undergoing extensive treatment COVID-19. Pinto allegedly entered the ward around midnight, early Wednesday, and proceeded to force himself on the woman while she was asleep.
The victim was jostled awake by Pinto's assault as he tried to fiddle helplessly with her urinary catheter. The disturbed woman quickly yelled for help startling the other patients in the ward awake. Security personnel shortly responded to the commotion as the suspect fled the premises of the hospital on foot.
The suspect was tracked down the morning after by local law enforcement. Following his arrest, Pinto will reportedly be presented in court after he undergoes a medical examination and a COVID-19 test, the Deccan Herald reported.
In a similar but unrelated incident, a COVID-19 infected woman reportedly died after she was allegedly gang-raped by three hospital employees in Patna, India on May 19, India Times reported.
The incident reportedly happened at the private Paras-HMRI hospital in Patna, India where the patient was undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
The victim's daughter posted about the ordeal on social media after her mother’s unfortunate demise and accused hospital authorities of forcefully moving her mother to ventilator support so that the matriarch would not be able to give her statement to the police.
In another such incident, a 19-year-old COVID-19 patient was allegedly raped by an ambulance driver while being taken to hospital in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, India, The Hindu reported.
The driver reportedly picked up the victim and another COVID-19 patient, a 40-year-old woman, from Adoor. The younger patient was to be admitted to the COVID First Time Treatment Centre at Pandalam, while the older woman was to be taken to a COVID Center in Aranmula.
Nonetheless, the driver reportedly headed directly to Aranmula to drop off the 40-year-old patient, before driving to Pandalam with the 19-year-old. On the way, however, the driver took the ambulance to a deserted lot and proceeded to rape the teen patient.
The man drove the victim to the COVID Center after the ordeal, threatening her not to report the ordeal to authorities. The woman had, however, recorded his warnings using her phone leading to the driver's arrest after she informed hospital staff.
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