Malla Reddy Medical College Assets Frozen

Hyderabad:The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), probing irregularities in the allotment of medical seats, on Friday formally issued an order formalising the seizure of Rs 1.47 crore unaccounted cash and freezing of bank balance of the Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, owned by BRS leader Ch Malla Reddy. The assets had been seized earlier.

The ED also announced attaching `5.34 crore belonging to two private medical colleges under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002: Chalmeda Ananda Rao Institute of Medical Sciences (`3.33 crore) and MNR Medical College (`2.01 crore).

The ED investigation revealed that some private medical colleges, in collusion with consultants and middlemen, were engaged in seat-blocking using the certificates and documents of high-ranking students. The blocked seats would be retained until the mop-up round/ last phase of counselling. Later, it was claimed that the top rankers had opted out after paying the penal fee imposed by the university.

Investigation revealed such penalty was arranged for by the private medical colleges and paid either directly through the college’s bank accounts or through middlemen. Such seats, shown as vacated, would be intimated by the colleges to the university and would be declared as stray vacancies.

The stray vacancies were then released by the KNRUHS to the respective colleges to be filled up on their own, akin to institutional quota seats, and the fees charged for such stray vacancies could be up to three times that of the regular fees for management quota category, termed MQ1.

ED investigation revealed that the private medical colleges were charging additional fee up to three times and, in some cases, collecting capitation fee in the form of cash over and above the inflated fee.The excess fees and capitation fee so collected by the colleges over and above the regular MQ1 category fees against deliberately blocked seats are the Proceeds of Crime (POC) in this case.

The ED has taken up an investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Matwada police of Warangal, filed on the basis of complaint of Registrar, Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) alleging that candidature of certain students with high NEET PG ranks were being used to block seats for admissions under the management quota.

In response to warning of legal action given by KNRUHS to such suspected seat blockers, some candidates claimed they had not applied for registration under the management quota.