Pune: A viral video of three men at PMC-run Kamala Nehru Hospital set off a chain of events – evacuation of staffers and visitors, even an investigation into a possible terror angle, and detention of the trio on suspicion of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants – on Wednesday morning. By evening, police ascertained upon verification of Aadhaar, PAN, and voter ID cards found with the three men that they hailed from the Kishanpur police jurisdiction in Supaul district of Bihar . Ruling out the terror angle, Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar, who was accompanying the governor during the latter’s visit to the city, told TOI, “No such thing has happened.
” A police officer said that the three men had come to Pune on July 27 to collect funds for a religious establishment at Supaul and they had got authorisation from a cleric in Kondhwa. “They were residing in a mosque at Kasewadi in Lohiyanagar settlement," he said, adding they have contacted their Bihar counterparts to verify the men’s credentials. Investigations revealed that the three had visited the civic hospital around 11.
40am on Tuesday and were there till around 2.30/3pm as one of them had taken ill. They got case papers done for the ailing person and visited a diagnostic centre on the hospital premises to give a blood sample for a test.
Around this time, a woman present at the hospital got suspicious about their movement and shot their video on her phone before sharing it on an instant messaging service. She also tagged hospital authorities and the police control room with a message that the trio might be Bangladeshi nationals, police officers said. Around 7pm on Tuesday, a police team visited the hospital and examined CCTV footage.
They gave images of the three men to the security department with a request to alert them when they visit the hospital again to collect the blood test report. Medical superintendent Dr Prashant Bothe said, "After Tuesday evening’s visit by the police team, we had circulated images of the three men on our hospital's WhatsApp group. On Wednesday morning the three men once again came to the hospital.
Our staff spoke to them and locked them in a room on the ground floor. We cordoned off the entire premises and shut down the OPDs as well. For about two hours there was some commotion but the police came soon and took away the three men.
" Deputy commissioner of police Sandeep Singh Gill, when asked whether the police had identified the person who shot and uploaded the video on social media and about the basis to suspect them of being illegal immigrants or terror suspects, said, “That is another part of our inquiry. We will soon question the person on this aspect.” On what prompted the police to resort to evacuation, Gill said, "The hospital usually remains crowded with people waiting in long queues at OPDs.
We wanted to avoid commotion or trouble at the time of detaining the three men.” The trio continued to be under detention on Wednesday night as the police were completing the verification process..
