Gold as ‘bribes’, cash in lockers, CBI arrests NALCO chairman with 10 kg of gold bricks; wife too in net
New Delhi, Bhubaneswar: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) Chairman and Managing Director Abhay Kumar Srivastava for allegedly demanding and accepting bribes in the form of gold bricks.
The agency, which also arrested his wife Chandni Srivastava along with two accomplices, claimed to have seized just over 10 kg of gold bricks worth Rs. 2.11 crore and cash worth Rs. 29.5 lakh from lockers and the residential premises of the accused in Delhi and Bhubaneswar. All four will be produced before a Delhi court on Saturday.
NALCO, a Navratna PSU and a flagship company under the Ministry of Mines, received the Best Listed PSU Award for
its "excellent performance in significant value addition to its shareholders," from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December last year.
Srivastava, who joined NALCO as CMD in 2009, was arrested near the UPSC at Shah Jahan Road in the capital near a branch of the Maharashtra Bank. Investigators found 10 kg of gold from his locker at the bank.
The CBI said that he with his wife were apprehended while demanding 3 kg of gold in bribe, agency spokesperson and DIG Binita Thakur said. "His wife had accepted the bribe on his behalf," she said.
"A personal search of the wife led to a recovery of Rs. 5 lakh from her handbag and a key of another locker in the name of wife of a middleman. Further search of this second locker led to recovery of Rs. 15 lakh in cash. Hence, total recoveries so far have been 10.18 kg of gold and Rs. 29.5 lakh of cash, the overall value of which comes to approximately Rs. 2.43 crore at current prices of gold," the spokesperson said.
When contacted, Mines Secretary S Vijay Kumar told The Indian Express: "I understand that he has been arrested. The investigating agency had been looking for him."
The CBI has accused Srivastava of having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and has booked him under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The agency said his wife was arrested for allegedly being a conduit and accomplice.
The agency suspects that Srivastava, during his service at NTPC and CMD of Cement Corporation of India Limited, also accumulated wealth in the form of bribes. The movable and immovable assets of Srivastava and his family members are also under scrutiny, said CBI officials.
The agency arrested two of his alleged accomplices, Bhusan Lal Bajaj and wife Anita Bajaj. The bank locker was in the name of Anita Bajaj but was being operated by Srivastava's wife while falsely representing herself to the bank. A mechanical engineer by profession, Srivastava spent more than three decades in state-controlled companies.
He has also worked with Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd for over five years.
Source: The Indian Express
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