Digital payment scam exposed at Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital, ₹20 lakh loot unearthed

After BMTC ticketing fraud, another digital payment misuse surfaces at a government hospital, raising serious concerns over monitoring of outsourced staff.

As digital payments become the norm, misuse of technology for illegal gains is also coming to light. After the recent BMTC conductor fraud involving private QR scanners, a similar scam has now been exposed at Bengaluru’s government-run Victoria Hospital.

The incident came to light after discrepancies were noticed in the daily accounts at one of the hospital’s payment counters. The counters were equipped with digital payment systems to make transactions easier for patients, especially those from economically weaker sections. However, instead of directing payments to the official hospital account, some outsourced staff allegedly installed their own personal QR code scanners and diverted the money.

A detailed internal verification revealed that more than ₹20 lakh had been misappropriated over a period of time. Following this, the hospital administration constituted an internal inquiry committee under the leadership of Medical Superintendent Dr Deepak. The probe confirmed large-scale financial irregularities at the counter.

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Based on the findings, a formal complaint was filed at the VV Puram police station. An FIR has been registered against eight individuals, all of whom were working as outsourced staff at the hospital counters. The police have taken up further investigation to trace the money trail and identify the duration of the fraud.

Hospital authorities clarified that the scam was carried out by a few external staff members entrusted with counter operations. Steps are now being taken to prevent any recurrence. The administration has decided to deploy special monitoring staff and conduct daily audits of all counter transactions to ensure transparency.

This incident comes close on the heels of the BMTC conductor scam, where three conductors were suspended for allegedly collecting around ₹50,000 using private scanners. Together, these cases have highlighted serious loopholes in digital payment oversight within public service systems