Updated Jul 25, 2011 at 10:12pm IST

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/lilavati-involved-in-money-laundering-it/170240-3.html

Mumbai: Lilavati Hospital, one of Mumbai's most famous landmarks, was raided by the Income Tax Department in April this year, after CNN-IBN exposed that four trustees of the hospital, who control the finances, are involved in large-scale money laundering and siphoning off money from the hospital. The trustees also figured in the list of Indians with black money accounts in Liechtenstein's LGT Bank.

Now, CNN-IBN has learnt that the Income Tax Department, which will submit their report in Supreme Court, has found that the money was siphoned off from Lilavati Hospital by bogus donations and expenses and bills to purchase medicines and machineries were inflated for a long time.

Income Tax officers say that the siphoning has been done by Prabodh Kirtilal Mehta, Rashmi Kirtilal Mehta, and their sons Chetan and Bhavin.

Their advisor, Dr Ramesh Modi, has also confessed to the investigators that he received regular kickbacks from medical stores and pharmaceutical companies. Some kickbacks even ranged from 30 per cent to 70 per cent of the invoice in specialised medicines and 90 per cent kickback in generic medicine purchased by the hospital.

Dr Modi told his interrogators that Chetan Mehta's office collected all the kickback money, while ex-pharmacist Dushyant Mehta kept a tab how the money was siphoned off.

When the Income Tax Department submits its report by the end of July, it will come as a double blow for the four trustees of Lilavati hospital, who now also face the SIT on black money. Yet, the Enforcement Directorate has been surprisingly delaying the investigation into their foreign bank accounts.