HYDERABAD: As part of investigation into the irregularities in purchase of medicine by Insurance Medicine Service (IMS) department, the ACB officials on Thursday arrested the IMS office Superintendent K Veeranna for accepting bribes on behalf of it’s former director Ch Devika Rani.
Following the arrest of Veeranna in connection with the scam, a total of 18 persons, including IMS officers and pharma company owners have been arrested for their alleged role in the scam. The officials said that the accused officer collected bribes and handed over the same to PMJ jewellers as directed by the former director.
On February 21, 2019 on the directions of the director, he collected bribe of Rs 6 lakh from one of the representatives of pharma company who supplied medicine to IMS, and handed over the same to the representative of PMJ jewellers.
Veeranna also used to collect bribes for himself from representatives of pharma companies for issuing purchase orders and processing sanctioning of bills. The accused officer obtained Rs 3.15 lakh from one S Srikanth Gupta of Origin Pharma through bank account transfer during 2018-19. He also collected bribe `50,000 from Pandiri Rajeswar Reddy and Teja Pharma through bank transfers.