Three journalists have been booked for their report on a man who was allegedly forced to take his father to hospital on a cart due to a lack of ambulances in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district, the Quint reported on Saturday.

Kunjbihari Kourav, Anil Sharma and NK Bhatele were booked for their “false and baseless” reports in Patrika, News18 and Lalluram.com after a complaint by Dr Rajiv Kourav, medical officer at Daboh Community Health Centre, according to media reports.

This came after a probe team – formed by Bhind District Collector Sathish Kumar S – claimed that the family did not call for an ambulance. According to the investigation, the elderly man, identified as Gyan Prasad Vishwakarma, was first taken to a private hospital. The probe also claimed that the family received benefits of all government schemes.

However, Vishwakarma’s family maintained that they had to push the cart for about five kilometres. His son Harikrishna alleged that government officials made him sign a blank paper. Officials are yet to respond to such claims, according to media reports.

The journalists have been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 505-2 (statements creating or promoting enmity between classes) and section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2008.