IMS scam: ED conducts raids

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday conducted searches at seven places in the city in connection with the money laundering investigation into a large scale scam in Insurance Medical Services (IMS) of Employees State Insurance (ESI) department. It seized large amount of incriminating evidence, huge unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs.3 crore, Rs.1 crore […]

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday conducted searches at seven places in the city in connection with the money laundering investigation into a large scale scam in Insurance Medical Services (IMS) of Employees State Insurance (ESI) department.

It seized large amount of incriminating evidence, huge unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs.3 crore, Rs.1 crore worth of jewellery, blank cheques, property documents and lockers, an official press release from the directorate said.

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Money laundering investigation was initiated against the then IMS director Dr Ch Devika Rani, her husband, Srihari Babu alias Babji of Omni Group company and several others on the basis of eight FIRs registered by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on the allegations of financial irregularities in the purchase and supply of medicines and surgical kits at escalated price, and gross deviations from ESIC and government norms, apart from creating fake indents and bills, diversion of medicines, falsification of records, etc.

The scam has generated Proceeds of Crime (POC) approximately Rs. 100 crore to Rs. 200 crore, the release said.

The ED searches began in the morning at the residential premises of Devika Rani, Srihari Babu and V Srinivas Reddy.

Searches were also conducted at the residential premises Mukunda Reddy, M Vinay Reddy, who is brother-in-law of Mukunda Reddy, Burra Pramod Reddy and on the business premises of Omni Medi.

During searches, unaccounted cash of around Rs1.50 crore, Rs1.15 crore and Rs.45 lakh was seized from the residential premises of Srinivas Reddy, Pramod Reddy and Vinay Reddy respectively.

Apart from cash, incriminating evidence, documents and digital evidence are being seized. Searches were still on when the last reports came in.

The ACB unearthed the scam in 2019 and arrested over 25 people including Devika Rani and a few representatives of pharmaceutical companies.

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