Hyderabad: Seven government officials including three doctors serving in the Insurance Medical Services (IMS), have been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, for an alleged multi-crore scam. The ACB is probing alleged financial irregularities in the supply of medicines to dispensaries and Employees State Insurance (ESI) hospitals in the state.
The director of IMS in Warangal, Dr Ch Devika Rani, joint director, Dr Padma, assistant director (store) K. Vasantha Indira, Shamshabad ESI dispensary pharmacist grade-II M. Radhika, senior assistant V. Harshavardhan, Omni Medi managing director K. Srihari Babu, and company representative Ch Siva Nagaraju were taken into custody on Friday for financial irregularities in purchasing medicines through special drug dispensing units instead of by rate contracts, in 2017-18.
ACB officers seized key documents related to the indents and other transactions from the residences of the seven persons. “We have to thoroughly examine the seized documents to ascertain the total loss caused to the government exchequer,” an ACB official said.
The ACB has named 17 government officials and four private persons and a journalist working for a vernacular news channel in the case that was registered on Wednesday under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Of the 17 officials, the seven named above were arrested and produced before the special court for ACB cases today after which they were remanded to judicial custody.
The investigation revealed that the director, Ch Devika Rani, in collusion with the other officials, prepared fake indents and falsified records in violation of the rules for purchasing medicines and surgical kits and caused a loss of Rs 11.69 crore to the exchequer.
The ACB said it examined 18 witnesses before making the arrests. According to its report, the ACB said no stock copies were received at the Patancheru and Borabanda dispensaries from the office of joint director (Medical), Hyderabad.
Yet, according to records at the joint director's office, these medicines were supplied to Patancheru and Borabanda dispensaries. It was evident from the indent forms dated May 26 to 28, 2018, that they were fabricated by taking colour photo copies of an earlier indent and altering the date, which amounted to forgery, the ACB said.
