ED attaches assets in Medical college seat blocking scam

Hyderabad:In the medical college seat block scam, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Hyderabad, has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 5.34 Crore (approx.) belonging to private medical colleges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The investigation revealed that private medical colleges blocked PG medical admission seats and encashed on the same.

The assets attached by ED are in the form of bank balances in the bank accounts of Chalmeda Ananda Rao Institute of Medical Sciences (Rs. 3.33 Crore) and MNR Medical College (Rs. 2.01 Crore). In the case of Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, ED had earlier seized unaccounted cash worth Rs. 1.475 Crore and frozen bank balance worth Rs. 2.89 Crore. The total value of seized / frozen / attached assets in this case stands at Rs. 9.71 Crore.

The Anti-Money Laundering Agency initiated an investigation based on an FIR from the Matwada Police Station, Warangal. The FIR was filed on a complaint from Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) alleging that candidature of certain students with high NEET PG ranks were being used to block seats for PG Medical admissions under the Management Quota. In response to the warning of legal action given by KNRUHS to such suspected seat blockers, some candidates claimed they had not applied for registration under the Management Quota at KNRUHS.

Investigation reveals colleges blocked seats, charged exorbitant fees

Further ED probe revealed that some private medical colleges, in active collusion with consultants/middlemen, were engaged in seat blocking using the certificates/ documents of high-ranking students. The blocked seats would be retained until the mop-up round/last phase of counselling and later the students were shown as exited and the penalty imposed by the University for exit at the last stage was paid.

“Investigation has revealed such a penalty was arranged for by the private medical colleges themselves and were paid either directly through the college’s bank accounts or through middlemen. Such seats, shown as vacated, would be intimated by the colleges to the University and would be declared as stray vacancies,” said ED in a statement.

The stray vacancies were then released by the KNRUHS to the respective colleges to be filled up on their own akin to institutional quota seats. The fees charged for such stray vacancies could be upto three times that of the regular fees for MQ1 management quota added ED.

An ED investigation revealed that the private medical colleges charged additional fees up to three times and collected capitation fees in cash over the inflated fees. The excess fees and capitation fees collected by the colleges over the regular MQ1 category fees against deliberately blocked seats are the Proceeds of Crime (POC) in this case.