Telangana government expedites probe into ‘fake bills’

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has expedited investigation into the “fake medical bills scam” pertaining to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

The Chief Minister’s Office has submitted the list of 9,200 CMRF beneficiaries and applicants to the CID, which is investigating the case following the directions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. 

The disbursal of CMRF cheques has been completely stopped for over a month now, affecting the poor and needy who are making continuous trips to the Secretariat to claim the amounts.

Nearly 25 hospitals in the city and districts are said to have resorted to irregularities by submitting fake bills. The CID has formed six teams to investigate the scam. 

CID officials have informed the CMO that preliminary investigation had revealed that almost 35 per cent of the medical bills submitted to claim CMRF funds were fake, and the case needed to be investigated further.

The informed the CMO that the hospitals, in nexus with some brokers, operated like a mafia and tried to siphon CMRF funds in three ways: by claiming bills in the name of patients without treating anyone; by claiming bills in the name of some other patient while treatment was given to someone else; and by claiming bills much higher than the expenditure actually incurred for treatment.

The CID teams have been summoning representatives from each of the 25 hospitals and questioning them as part of the investigation.

It is likely to submit a report to the government by this month end. The TS government is planning to initiate stringent action against the guilty, besides invoking the Revenue Recovery Act to recover the swindled amount.