NALCO CMD, his wife, 2 others to face 5 days of CBI grilling

New Delhi, Feb 26 (PTI) NALCO CMD Abhay Kumar
Srivastava, his wife and two others, arrested in an alleged
bribery case, were produced in Delhi court on Saturday which
allowed CBI to quiz them in its custody for five days.
In a related development, Government suspended
Srivastava and asked B L Bagra, Director (Finance), NALCO, to
assume additional charge of CMD till further orders.
Srivastava was to chair a meeting of the NALCO Board
of Directors in Bhubaneshwar on Saturday. The meeting has now
been deferred in view of the developments.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's premier
investigation agency, arrested the four following a tip off
and recovered about 10 kgs of gold bricks and jewellery valued
at around Rs 2.13 crores as also Rs 30 lakh in cash from their
possession yesterday.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini sent Srivastava, Chairman-
cum-Managing Director (CMD) of NALCO, his wife Chandani,
alleged middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj and his wife Anita, to CBI
custody till March 3 saying the allegations are "very serious"
and being the CMD of public sector National Aluminum Company
(NALCO), he holds a "very high ranking post".
"Accused A K Srivastava is holding a very high ranking
post being the CMD of NALCO. In these circumstances, the case
is required to be thoroughly investigated and for that
sustained interrogation of the accused persons is required.
"Accordingly, I am satisfied that the prayer for
police custody of the accused persons is justified," the judge
said.
Srivastava took over as the NALCO chief in October,
2009 and before that he was CMD of the Cement Corproation of
India for nearly five years.
NALCO is Asia's largest integrated aluminum complex
undertaking bauxite mining, alumina refining, smelting and
casting besides power generation as also rail and port
operations.
CBI contended that Bajaj acted as a middlemen for
obtaining official favour for Bhatia Group of Companies from
Srivastava and for that he had collected huge illegal
gratification from G S Bhatia, CMD of Bhatia Group of
Companies, on behalf of the NALCO's CMD.
The agency alleged that Bajaj was working as a conduit
between coal suppliers and Srivastava.
Bajaj, it said, was having close links with Bhatia and
used three phone numbers to talk to him.
Bhatia Group of Companies is engaged in trading of
imported and indigenous coal with various private companies
and PSU's through its company M/s Bhatia International Ltd and
Bhatia Coal Sales Ltd located in Indore.
CBI said Srivastava had instructed Bajaj to convert
the brine money received from Bhatia Group of Companies into
gold and to deliver it to him. (MORE) PTI