Anti-Corruption Bureau officials on Thursday registered a fresh criminal case in the sensational Insurance Medical Services (IMS) scam against three top former officials of Insurance Medical Services and six private persons.
Already, four cases were registered against some of them. They were arrested and came out on bail. In the fresh case, they were accused of conspiring to cause nearly ₹6.5 crore loss to State exchequer. Former director of IMS Ch. Devika Rani, former joint director Kalakuntla Padma and former deputy director Kurapati Vasantha Indira were charged with corruption and conspiring with private persons for pecuniary advantage.
The remaining six persons allegedly influenced the government officials by illegal means and falsified records. Different sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code were invoked against the nine accused. Twelve special ACB teams started searches at the offices and residences of the accused to gather evidences when reports last came in.
The six private persons facing the charges are Kancharla Srihari Babu of M/s Omni Medi, Kancharla Sujatha of M/s Omni Healthcare, Kukkala Krupasagar Reddy of M/s Legend Enterprises, Tankasala Venkatesh, regional manager of M/s Hemocue, Bandi Venkateshwarlu of Omni Medi and Cherukuri Nagaraju, employee of Omni Medi.
ACB Deputy Director M. Ramana Kumar, who is supervising investigation of the case, said Mr. Srihari Babu, accused of floating shell companies, played key role in all the transactions which resulted in wrongful loss to the government. He submitted a fake letter in the name of M/S Hemocue AB Sweden authorising him as distributor for Hemocue HB Cuvettes.
Presenting this letter, he secured purchase orders from then IMS director Devika Rani through shell firms floated by him, his wife Sujatha and Krupasagar, Mr. Ramana Kumar said. He had taken control of IMS officials by either bribing or threatening them, according to the officer.
Hemocue HB Cuvettes used for measuring blood pressure were actually supplied by the company to distributors for a price of ₹3,300 each. The accused jacked up the price of each kit by ₹11,700 by bringing in the shell firms they had created into the role of intermediaries which were present only on paper.
During 2017-18, IMS director purchased 5,547 kits ending up paying an excess amount of ₹6.48 crore to the accused. Probe is on.