Vijayawada: ED conducts searches at Akkineni Women's Hospital, NRI hospitals

Vijayawada/Guntur: Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches in two private hospitals, NRI Hospital and Akkineni Women's Hospital, at Mangalagiri in Guntur district and Vijayawada respectively.

The ED officials seized the phones of the hospital staff, questioned them on certain alleged irregularities. They took away the hospital chairperson and managing director Akkineni Mani, a doctor from America who had founded the hospital to an undisclosed place for questioning. She was also the director of NRI Hospital in the past. The ED conducted inspections in the wake of allegations of diversion of foreign funds, irregularities in collection of fees while allotting medical seats under management quota and other financial wrongdoings during Covid period.

It is learnt that the ED officials seized documents from these hospitals and records from Akkineni Women's Hospital and NRI Hospital. Four teams of officials checked the records and also searched the residences of NRI Hospital society members The ED was investigating the allegations of massive irregularities, including allegations of diversion of funds through manual receipts and fake receipts.

Officials stated that the details of 1,500 patients who received treatment during the Covid pandemic were not included in the records. There are allegations that money transfers were made to fraudulent accounts with the help of some employees. In relation to NRI Hospital, there were allegations of irregularities in the purchase of equipment, and in the form of MBBS fees, which was running into crores of rupees. Former directors Akkineni Mani, Uppala Srinivasa Rao and Nalini Mohan were being questioned by the ED. Nimmagadda Upendranath, who is also a director, is said to be in Hyderabad and ED sleuths were looking for him.

It is alleged that the there has been diversion of funds from these hospitals to some real estate companies in Hyderabad. The officials do not rule out the possibility of some more arrests in the case.

It is said that Akkineni Women's Hospital in Vijayawada and the NRI Medical College and Hospital at Mangalagiri in Guntur district indulged in illegal money transactions of around Rs 60-70 crore during the Covid pandemic. The Akkineni Hospital was inaugurated in Vijayawada last August.