ED seize Rs 1.4 crore unaccounted cash from Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences

Hyderabad: The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate seized unaccounted cash of Rs 1.4 crore from Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences.

During a recent search, the ED also froze Rs 2.89 crore in a bank account of Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences where the cash collected against the medical PG admissions came under suspicion.

The sleuths of ED conducted searches at 16 locations in Hyderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar and other places across Telangana under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on June 21 in connection with PG medical seat blocking scam.

Searches were conducted on 12 medical colleges including Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences at Bommakal and Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences in Nagunur, both in Karimnagar district, Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences in Narketpally in Nalgonda district, Mamatha Medical College in Khammam, MNR Medical College, Sangareddy, and Bhaskar Medical College in Moinabad, Rangareddy district, in the alleged seat blocking fraud.

Earlier in February 2023, the ED had recorded a case of money laundering on the basis of an FIR registered by the Matwada Police, Warangal, upon a complaint filed by the then registrar of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) against unknown persons. It was alleged that some agencies are involved in seat blocking in collusion with students/private institutions in Telangana and other states and in obtaining important documents of candidates required for registration under KNRUHS.

The investigation by ED revealed that the university, during its own inquiries, detected five candidates who informed that they had not even applied for counselling with the KNRUHS. It was further revealed that seats were blocked using credentials of high-scoring PG NEET candidates from other states and after the mop-up round of counselling and the last date of admission, the seats were reported to the university as vacant and such vacant seats were declared as stray vacancies by the university and given to the respective private medical colleges for admission under the management/institutional quota. These seats were then sold off at exorbitant premiums ranging anywhere between Rs 1 to Rs 2.5 crore.

To curb the menace of seat blocking, the university had provisioned penalties on the defaulting candidates. However, ED investigation revealed that a penalty was being paid by/on behalf of the seat-blocking candidates out of the premium collected for the sale of the PG medical seats.

The search operations resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents, digital devices and records of cash transactions running into hundreds of crores of rupees relating to the collection of cash fees and premiums from PG medical candidates as well as MBBS students.

The police said further investigation in the case is under progress.