The hopes of former minister and senior TDP MLA Kinjarapu Atchen Naidu to secure bail in the multi-crore ESI scam were shattered once again on Monday with the state high court reserving its orders till Wednesday.
Atchen’s counsel Siddhartha Luthra argued strongly in favour of the former minister stating that the latter had only acted on many representations for the contracts and directed the Director, Insurance Medical Services to grant the contract to Tele Health Services.
Advocate General Subrahmanyam Sriram vehemently opposed granting of the bail to Atchen Naidu and further argued that the decision taken by him was not in discharge of his official duties.
While listing the reasons for opposing the bail, the AG explained about one such conspiracy, a contract been made during the former minister’s term where on September 16, 2016, a grant was made on Tele health services that provides services like toll free services, settlement of medical reimbursement and secondary care referral bills system.
This grant is a violation of the financial court and the Government orders which clearly states that any contract over 1 Lakh shall be called through the E- Procurement method, where as in this case, a beneficiary was identified and a tailor-made contract was allotted to him.
It is not understood why he had to award the contract bypassing the rules and regulations prescribed by the financial code. This big scam clearly is a major damage to public funds costing multiple crores being misused, Sriram said.
He said there was a quid pro quo involved in this case. That would be brought out only if director of Tele Health Services Private Limited B Pramod Reddy, Accused -A3 is arrested.
He concluded by stating that at this stage, granting the bail would further tamper the evidence and investigation may be hampered.
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