VIJAYAWADA: ACB sleuths arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore ESI scam on Wednesday. Medical superintendent of Vijayawada ESI hospital Bala Ravi Kumar (55), proprietor of Omni Medi & Omni Enterprises Kancharla Srihari Babji (51), proprietor of Omni Healthcare Kancharla Sujatha (45), and manager of Omni Healthcare Bandi Venkateswarlu (45) were the ones arrested.
While Ravi Kumar was arrested in Vijayawada, the rest were apprehended in Hyderabad. Srihari, who owns the two pharmacy distribution firms, had set up a shell company under the name Omni Healthcare and made his wife Sujatha the proprietor. All three firms were functioning from the same address in Ameerpet, Hyderabad.
Srihari also set up Legend Enterprises, another pharmacy distribution firm, allegedly under his benamidar Krupasagar Reddy in Kukatpally. All four companies are under the control of Srihari who made circular trading among them and raised the price of lab kits by nearly 400% and supplied them to ESI hospital in AP by colluding with Ravi Kumar, who was then director of insurance medical services (IMS).
