The officials are searching for 13 more accused in the multi-crore Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scam, which is being probed jointly by the Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) Department and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
The ACB officials arrested six persons in the case on Friday – Tekkali TDP MLA and former Labour Minister K. Atchannaidu, two retired directors, a retired joint director, and two staff members.
The other accused
The remaining persons allegedly involved in the case were joint directors G. Jagadeep Gandhi, V. Krishna Kumar, B. Chandrasekhar and T. Sarala; administrative officer V.V.S.N. Murthy; former pharmacist in the Central Drug Store, DIMS, K. Dhana Lakshmi; civil surgeon K. Ranga Swamy, and employees S. Narasimha Rao and A. Krupakanth.
Director of Prodigy Computers and Laptops, Hyderabad, T. Dinesh; director of Jalam Environment Private Limited G. Murali Krishna; Jercon Enterprises proprietor Ravi Tejasri; and Tele Health Services Private Limited director T. Pramod Reddy were also wanted in the fraud, the ACB sleuths said.
The ESI Scheme is being monitored and implemented by the Director of Insurance Medical Services (DIMS). Treatment is being provided to the insured employees and their dependants in four ESI Hospitals, three ESI Diagnostic Centres and 78 ESI Dispensaries in Andhra Pradesh.
Three directors, five joint directors, a couple of doctors, directors of a few companies and some staff members are allegedly involved in the scam.
They had allegedly procured drugs, surgical equipment and other material, all worth about ₹988.77 crore between 2014-15 and 2018-19.
“The accused had violated the procedures and guidelines laid down by the Labour, Employment, Training and Factories (LET&F) Department and the ESI Corporation. The purchases were made without consulting the Drug Procurement Committee and without calling for open tenders, causing huge loss to the government,” the officers said.
