The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday carried out simultaneous searches at seven places in Hyderabad in connection with the investigation into money laundering in a multi-crore scam in TS Insurance Medical Services (IMS) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) two years ago. The searches that commenced in the morning continued till late Saturday evening.
Incriminating evidence
A release later said ED had seized large amounts of incriminating evidence, unaccounted cash to the tune of ₹3 crore, ₹1 crore worth jewellery, blank cheques, property papers, and lockers.
Searches were taken up at the residence of V. Srinivas Reddy, son-in-law of former Home and Labour Minister Nayini Narasimha Reddy at MLAs Colony in Banjara Hills, Mukunda Reddy, personal secretary to the former Home Minister, Devika Rani, suspended director of IMS, her husband Gurumurthy, and Srihari alias Babji of Omni Group, M. Vinay Reddy, brother-in-law of Mukunda Reddy, businessman Burra Pramod Reddy and the business premises of Omni Medi.
The ED officials seized ₹1.50 crore from the house of Srinivas Reddy, ₹1.15 crore from Pramod Reddy and ₹45 lakh from Vinay Reddy. Documents of incriminating evidence and digital evidence were also seized.
The release also added that the money laundering investigation was initiated against the then director of IMS Devika Rani, her husband and several others on the basis of eight FIRs registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana following allegations of financial irregularities in purchase and supply of medicines and surgical kits, huge price escalation, gross deviation from the ESIC and government norms, creation of fake indents, fake bills, diversion of medicines, and falsification of records, among other things.
The scam had generated proceeds of crime ranging from ₹100 to ₹200 crore. The ACB had arrested Devika Rani and eight others in the scam in 2019. The agency had recovered ₹4.47 crore from Devika Rani in September last year.
Her family had allegedly invested huge amounts of money in chit fund and real estate companies. She and some others in ESI were found to have placed orders for purchase of medical equipment and drugs whether or not they were required. The bills were inflated in the process. Saturday’s searches were a result of the findings of the ACB.
