New Delhi, Oct 27 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said that it has filed a chargesheet against 17 accused individuals in connection with its probe into the Insurance Medical Services (IMS) scam .The ED said that the charge sheet was filed against the 17 people under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in the court of Metropolitan Sessions Judge cum Special Court (PMLA), Hyderabad. The court took cognisance of the charge sheet on Thursday. The ED case is based on eight FIRs registered by ACB, Hyderabad under various sections of IPC, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against several persons including top officials of the IMS. Devika Rani, the then Director of the IMS, K. Padma, the then Joint Director and others have been named in the charge sheet. It was claimed that they deviated from the laid down principles for procurement of medicines and medical equipment to benefit select vendors for illegal gratification and thus caused a huge loss to the government exchequer. The agency said that during its probe it was found that officials of IMS and private persons hatched a conspiracy and deliberately created fake emergency situations and shortage of medical supplies so that they could issue Purchase Orders to select vendors, through local purchase route, in exchange of illegal gratification. "Further, payments to various suppliers were deliberately withheld and were released only after acceptance of bribe," it said. Earlier, the ED had attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 143.15 crore in this case. /IANS