The Telangana Vigilance and Enforcement Department has initiated a probe against the Deputy Medical Superintendent of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad following allegations of discrepancies in the COVID-19 vaccination programme in which nearly 7,000 ‘ineligible’ persons were vaccinated. The Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr KV Krishna Reddy, has been accused of diverting vaccines meant for frontline workers to instead vaccinate those who are not eligible for the same.

It is alleged that 7,000 people who were given the first dose are yet to be given the vaccination certificate and confusion now prevails over the second dose, as several people had allegedly forged their documents to avail vaccines meant for frontline and healthcare workers. The Vigilance Department issued a notice to the NIMS Director on May 26. As part of the probe, the Department has asked the hospital to produce the employment certificates of the healthcare and frontline workers who were vaccinated. The Director has been asked to produce the complaints against KV Krishna Reddy, copies of enquiry pending against him, and details of his promotion as Assistant Professor.

Besides this, the hospital is embroiled in another ‘bed scam,’ which is being probed by the Panjagutta police. On May 28, Dr N Satyanarayana, Medical Superintendent of NIMS, filed a complaint with the Panjagutta police asking them to investigate a scam where patients coming to the hospital, which is run by the government, were charged exorbitant amounts of money to avail beds and treatment.

According to the complaint, a person identified as Krishna Reddy had admitted his mother, a COVID-19 patient, in NIMS. At the hospital, a man identified as Prashanth assured him better treatment for the patient if he was paid Rs 1 lakh. As agreed, the victim paid him the money via Google Pay. But he was then asked to pay another Rs 1 lakh, which led him to become suspicious. Subsequently, the victim approached the Medical Superintendent and filed a written complaint on May 18. The internal inquiry conducted by the administration revealed that Prashanth is not an employee of the hospital but was connected to several top officials in the administration.

The Department inquiry revealed that the patient was admitted to the hospital at the behest of Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr N Lakshmi Bhaskar, who had made a call to Resident Medical Officer Dr Mahender asking him to admit the patient.