Bengaluru: In a rarest of rare case, the Karnataka CID arrested four persons for inflating and forging medical bills to claim money from the Chief Minister’s Medical Relief Fund.

Police who discovered more than 100 forged bills of over 30 reputed hospitals in Bengaluru say that the group has siphoned more than Rs three crores so far.

The bills were found to be inflated to the extent that bill for treatment of a dog bite was inflated and shown as medication for cancer care, and healthy men and women from north Karnataka have undergone open-heart surgery.

With this the CID is expected some more surprises and is all set to even question the CM’s office in a day or two.

An employee at the chief minister’s office spotted an anomaly in the bills and lodged a complaint at Vidhana Soudha police station. The case was later transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). So far, 54 cases have been registered across the state, reports indiatimes.com

The four arrested men are Amogappa Tippanna Moratagi from Jewargi in Gulbarga, C M Nagaraj Shetty of KR Pet, M K Kiran Kariyappa of Chikkanayakanahalli in Tumakuru and Shankar Siddashetty from KR Pet.

Amogappa had alone submitted 75 formed bills in different names.

Cash is sanctioned to beneficiaries only if a minister or MLA recommends the patient and in these cases, Ministers and MLAs from Congress, BJP and the JD(S) made recommendations and it is not clear if these elected representatives have known the antecedents of the patients or not.

As per sources, one minister has signed 25 forged bills.