Former Labour Minister and Tekkali TDP legislator K. Atchannaidu, who was arrested along with six others on Saturday in the multi-crore ESI scam, had allegedly mounted pressure on the Insurance Medical Services (IMS) officials and caused huge loss to the government.
Mr. Atchannaidu allegedly recommended the IMS officials to allot a call centre, ECG services and patient case management system to Hyderabad-based Tele Health Services Private Limited.
He had allegedly issued three letters from his ‘peshi’ directing then IMS Director C.K. Ramesh Kumar to allot the services to the private company, though there was no government sanction order. He had allegedly directed the ESI officials to allot the services without inviting any tenders.
“Mr. Atchannaidu had issued the letters in 2016 and 2017 to the ESI officials by violating the guidelines. From January 2017 to May 2018, the ESI officials paid ₹4.15 crore to the firm,” the ACB officials said.
It was found that the company representatives had submitted false names and phone numbers of the patients to whom they provided services. When the ACB sleuths investigated further, it was revealed that the patients were also native of different places of Telangana.
The joint directors, directors and other officials had cleared bills to the Tele Health Services Private Limited without verifying the details of the patients, the investigation officers said.
“The ESI officials connived with the company representative and paid the bills without verifying the facts and other details. They had resorted to misappropriation of government funds,” the ACB sleuths said.