Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday launched raids at multiple locations across Telangana and recovered Rs 1.4 crore unaccounted cash in connection with postgraduate medical seat blocking scam, sources said. Sources said that the ED conducted simultaneous searches in 12 colleges across the state on Wednesday in connection with the case.
The searches that continued till night were conducted in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal, Medicity, Karimnagar district, Nalgonda, Sangareddy, Khammam and Mahabubnagar. During the raids, many incriminating documents and digital devices were seized by the ED, an official said. He said that Rs.1.4 crore unaccounted cash was recovered from the Mallareddy Institute of Medical Sciences belonging to Minister Mallareddy's family and Rs 2.89 crore in the frozen bank account of the college have been seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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The money was forfeited as the college management failed to submit adequate evidence, sources said. An ED spokesman said in a statement, “ED has conducted searches at the premises of 12 private medical colleges and offices of related persons at 16 locations in Hyderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar and other places across Telangana under the provisions of the PMLA on June 21, 2023, in case of PG Medical Seat Blocking Scam”.
"Various incriminating documents, digital devices, records of cash transactions, unaccounted cash of Rs 1.4 crore and Rs 2.89 crore in the bank account of Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences were seized," the ED spokesman added. It can be recalled that on June 19, ED conducted searches at 14 locations in Kerala as part of an investigation against the network of Hawala operators and illegal Forex Dealers in the state of Kerala.
The ED had registered the case in Feb. this year based on an FIR registered by the Mattewada police on a complaint filed by Kaloji Arogya University against the blocking of PG seats in private medical colleges. The university mainly focused on the information provided by its internal inquiry that private medical colleges colluded with some students and blocked PG seats.
It inquired on the suspicion that brokers may have applied based on the user ID and passwords of such students. It found that seats were blocked in the name of the students until the mop-up round (final phase) of counseling was completed.
