The officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted raids and searches at the residences of three people, including the former president of Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society (HKES) Bhimashankar Bilgundi, in connection with allegations of misuse of stipends meant for medical students during his tenure.

The case pertains to the swindling of stipend amounts meant for postgraduate medical students at Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College (MRMC) run by HKES.

Dr. Bhimashankar Bilgundi, Dean of MRMC College S.M. Patil, accountant Subhash Jagannath and manager of Canara Bank, MRMC branch, have been accused of embezzling stipends intended for postgraduate medical students.

The ED conducted searches at the residences of Dr. Bilgundi, Dr. Patil and Subhash Jagannath, according to sources. However, there was no information available regarding any raid being conducted at the house of the bank manager.

As many as 30 ED officers formed themselves into teams and conducted raids on all the three residences simultaneously on Wednesday morning. They examined financial transactions and documents seized during the raids to track the money trail.

The charge

The charge was that ₹ 81.21 crore of stipend funds meant for 282 students pursuing postgraduate between January 2018 and March 2024 at MRMC were misused by Dr. Bilgundi, Dr. Patil, Subhash Jagannath and the manager of Canara Bank MRMC branch. A case was registered in March 2024 at CEN (Cyber, Economic and Narcotics Crime) Police Station.

As per the complaint, all the four accused were involved in siphoning off the stipend amount. Initially, the stipend money was deposited into the accounts of beneficiary students. Later, they withdrew the amount through blank post-dated cheques, collected from all the students in advance.