Bhubaneswar: Continuing its drive against the middlemen, the police arrested at least 75 persons on charges of collecting money from people at the regional transport offices (RTOs) and government hospitals across the state, said a press note of Odisha Police Friday.
As per the press note, 31 middlemen (Dalals) were arrested from the premises of the government hospitals while 44 got apprehended around the RTOs in various districts. Police arrested seven dalals from Berhampur medical college, four each from hospitals at Kendrapara and Angul. Three middlemen each were arrested from hospitals in Mayurbhanj and Balasore while two each from Ganjam and Nabarangpur. Police arrested one middleman each from hospitals in Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Sonepur, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur.
Similarly, police arrested eight middlemen each from the RTOs at Rourkela and Raygada, six each from Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar. Five middlemen were arrested from RTO office at Balasore while one each from Koraput and Balasore. Similarly, three middlemen were nabbed from Angul RTO office and two from Jajpur RTO office.
Police had earlier arrested at least 31 middlemen from various hospitals, medical colleges, blood banks and dispensaries across the state.
The number of middlemen arrested by the police from the premises of hospitals and RTOs has reached 106 so far. Police took stringent action against the Dalals following the instructions from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to keep middlemen away from the hospitals and RTOs.
Police said they will launch an investigation to find out links between the arrested middlemen and private hospitals, dispensaries and diagnostics. Similarly, the Dalals held from the RTO offices will be interrogated to elicit their links with officials of the RTOs and transport operators.
The superintendents of police (SPs) and deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) have been asked to submit daily situation report (SR) to the police higher-ups for further action in this regard.