Published May 12, 2023 | 2:05 PM ⚊ Updated May 12, 2023 | 2:05 PM
The ED confirmed the attachment of properties of the members of the academy Guntur district. (Supplied)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth ₹307.61 crore in a money laundering case registered against members and officials linked to the well-known NRI Academy of Sciences (NRIAS).
The properties — including ₹15.61 crore in bank accounts, and land and buildings in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — were attached in connection with the diversion of money collected from Covid patients and students during admissions to the NRIAS, a medical college and hospital that is registered as a society under Andhra Pradesh Societies Registration Act, 2001.
The ED confirmed the attachment of properties of the members of the academy in Guntur district.
ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by Andhra Pradesh Police under various sections of IPC against Nimmagadda Upendranath, Mani Akkineni, and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery in respect of the funds of NRIAS.
Searches had been conducted earlier by ED in this case in December 2022 and incriminating evidence, including unaccounted cash, parallel cash books, dummy ledgers, etc, were seized.
Several other FIRs were also registered at different police stations of Andhra Pradesh against members of the society.
The medical college was started in 2003-2004 with an intake of 100 students after it received permission from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as per the recommendation of the Medical Council of India.
The ED had earlier conducted searches at the offices of the academy as well as the residences of Upendranath, a director of a firm called 3Nri Institute Of Medical Science And Research Center Pvt Ltd, and Akkineni, a director of a firm called NRIAS Pvt Ltd.
The ED found major irregularities in the admission process of students, apart from evidence of the institution collecting huge sums of money from Covid patients.
The ED has contended that the members and officials of NRIAS “fraudulently” siphoned off funds of the institution for personal gain.
“During Covid-19, patients were charged exorbitant rates (much above the rates prescribed by the government) and the charges were collected in cash which was never recorded in the books of accounts. These funds were subsequently diverted by the members and officials of the society,” the ED said.
Similarly, the ED said, the admission fee collected from MBBS/PG students under the management quota was accepted “in cash” and not recorded.
The NRIAS management also collected these fees from students in foreign currency in some of their affiliated firms in the US, instead of receiving them in the accounts of NRIAS in India, the ED has contended.
They officials and management also floated a private limited company, NRIAS Pvt Ltd, the name of which was “deliberately chosen” to deceive the Andhra Pradesh Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation and others into depositing “the amounts payable to the society for certain projects directly into the accounts of the said private limited company instead of the bank accounts of the society”, the agency said.
“The funds of the society were also diverted to associated entities and others in the guise of payment of taxes, construction activities,” it said.
