In a money laundering case involving members of the NRI Academy of Medical Sciences (NRIAS) Nimmagadda Upendranath, Mani Akkineni, and others, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has temporarily seized movable and immovable properties worth Rs. 307.61 Crore. The connected properties include Rs. 15.61 crore in bank accounts, as well as land and structures in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
On the basis of FIRs registered by Mangalagiri PS, Andhra Pradesh Police, under various sections of the IPC against Nimmagadda Upendranath, Mani Akkineni, and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery in respect of funds of NRIAS (a society registered under the Andhra Pradesh Societies Registration Act, 2001), the ED launched a money laundering investigation. Several more FIRs were also filed against members of the group at other Andhra Pradesh police stations.
An ED probe found that NRIAS members and officers fraudulently syphoned off large sums of money from society and redirected it for personal advantage. During Covid-19, patients were charged excessive rates (far above the government-mandated rates), and the costs were collected in cash, which was never documented in the books of accounts and was later syphoned by society members and executives.
Similarly, the management quota admission fee was collected in cash from MBBS/PG students. They also resorted to collecting management quota fees from students in foreign currency in some of their societies founded in the United States rather than receiving the same in the accounts of NRIAS in India.
They also established a private limited company, NRIAS Pvt. Ltd., with the intention of deceiving and inducing APMSIDC (Andhra Pradesh Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation) and others to deposit funds payable to the society for specific projects directly into the accounts of the said private limited company rather than the society’s bank accounts. Furthermore, monies from the organisation were transferred to linked businesses and others under the cover of tax payments, building operations, and so on.
In December 2022, the ED conducted a search in this case and recovered incriminating material demonstrating the collection and removal of the above-mentioned unaccounted cash earned from COVID-19 patients/MBBS & PG students, parallel cash books, dummy ledgers, and so on. An investigation into the situation is now underway.
