ESI scam ACB takes seven suspects into custody for quizzing

Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials, probing the multi-crore medicine purchasing scam of ESI, on Wednesday took seven suspects into their custody to tease out more information from them.

The sleuths took Insurance Medical Services (IMS) director Ch Devika Rani, joint director K Padma, assistant director K Vasantha Indira, pharmacist M Radhika, senior assistant V Harshavardhan and other two persons K Srihari Babu, MD of Omni Medi company, the company's representative Ch Siva Nagaraju and are quizzing them at ACB headquarters in Banjara Hills.

They are all in judicial remand at Chanchalguda Jail. The officials have so far arrested 13 suspects in the case and seized key documents from the residences and offices of them during the searches and found evidences regarding financial irregularities amounting to more than Rs 11 crore.

They are quizzing the suspects on the role and financial agreement made between them and the pharmaceutical companies and the amount to which irregularities made in supplying of medicines and kits to dispensaries and other hospitals of ESI violating the norms.