Telangana medicine purchase scam: ACB conducts searches

Hyderabad: The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday conducted simultaneous searches in the offices and residences of officials of Insurance Medical Services (IMS) and others as part of its probe into the alleged scam in purchase of medicines for state-run hospitals and dispensaries.

The bureau, directed by the government to take up the probe, said it has found the Director of IMS and other officials were "involved in making fake indents, falsification of records, violating the rules and regulations in the purchase of medicines, surgical kits and caused loss to the exchequer.

A case has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code sections and the searches were conducted at the offices and residences of Director and Joint Director of IMS and 15 other officials besides at the premises of four private individuals, including a reporter of a Telugu TV channel, the ACB said in a release here.

In all, searches were being carried out at 21 places in the city and one place each in Warrangal and Mahabubabad.

Earlier, the vigilance and enforcement wing had held an inquiry into the allegations that no proper eligibility criteria were followed by the Director of IMS in the selection of firms for supply of medicines.

The wing, which filed a report in March this year, had found medicines were bought at exorbitant prices, in violation of the procurement procedures and the e-tender processes. Listing the alleged irregularities, the ACB release said among others two fake indents for medicines worth Rs 1.03 crore were prepared by the Joint Director in May last year and the bills were passed by the Director.

Similarly, medicines worth Rs 1.23 crore were indented and received by the Joint Director but the stock was not sent to the dispensaries, it said.

Another allegation was that the Director and other officials caused a loss of Rs 9.43 crore to the government in the purchase of medicines through 2017-18. The case was under further investigation, the release added.