Rs 82 crore stipend scam: ED searches premises of Karnataka medical college officials

New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) In a co-ordinated search operation in Karnataka’s Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College (MRMC) stipend scam, the ED's Bengaluru office seized electronic records and documents from seven premises in Kalaburgi district, an official said on Monday.

The three-day operation spread over April 30, May 1 and May 3, was carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, to investigate alleged misappropriation of Rs 81.21 crore under the stipend scam.

The ED searches were targeted at the properties of Bhimashankar Bilgundi, former President of Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society (HKE), Gulbarga, Dr. S.M. Patel, former Dean of MRMC Medical College, and Subash Chandra, college accountant.

During the search operation, incriminating evidence in the form of electronic records containing excel sheets reflecting the details of blank signed cheques received from PG Medical students and amount of cash withdrawn by the college management from bank accounts of students, were seized, the ED said.

The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of an FIR registered with Cyber and Economics and Narcotics (CEN) Cell, Kalaburgi.

The FIR alleged that in college records the stipend amount of Rs 81.21 crore was released to 282 post-graduate students between January 1, 2018, and March 1, 2024. However, the money was never used by the PG medical students.

The FIR named the two-time society president Bilgundi, MRMC Medical College Dean S.M. Patil, college accountant and a manager of Canara Bank, MRMC Branch, as accused in the stipend scam.

The modus operandi of the accused institution and officials involved coercing PG medical students to give signed blank cheques to the management, which used them to withdraw the stipend amount credited into their accounts.

The ED investigation revealed that during the financial years 2018-19 to 2023-24, the accused collected the signed blank cheques from PG students of MRMC.

In this manner, Rs 30 crore had been siphoned off by the previous college management, the ED said.

--IANS

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