Srivastava suspended,Bagra takes charge

CBI to question NALCO CMD,his wife,2 others for 5 days.

A CBI court on Saturday sent NALCO chairman and managing director Abhay Kumar Srivastava,his wife,middleman BL Bajaj and his wife to five-day police custody till March 3 after the agency submitted that the accused are habitually corrupt.

Reacting to the CBI charges,the mines ministry suspended Srivastava a top official said. BL Bagra,director (Finance),has been given the additional charge of chairman and managing director till further orders,the official added.

Mines minister Dinsha Patel and senior ministry officials went through the CBI report. Based on the developments,Srivastava has been suspended and the senior most NALCO official B L Bagra has been given charge of CMD till further orders, the official said.

Srivastava,his wife Chandani,Bajaj and his spouse Anita Bajaj were arrested yesterday in a bribery case,after ten 10 kg of gold bricks and nearly Rs 30 lakh were recovered from the woman and a bank locker they were managing.

Bajaj was acting as the middleman for Srivastava for arranging bribe money by corrupt or illegal means from the bidders/suppliers of NALCO, said the CBI. Bajaj also obtained official favours for Bhatia Group of companies from Srivastava and collected huge illegal gratification on behalf of Srivastava from its managing director GS Bhatia,the agency said,adding that Srivastava had asked Bajaj to buy gold with the illegally money received.

Elaborating the role of Chandani in the case,the agency said that she was operating locker no. 127 in Bank of Maharashtra,Shahjahan Road,New Delhi and locker no. 920 in Bank of India,Mayur Vihar Phase – I,New Delhi,which were maintained in the name of Anita. The CBI claimed that the lockers were used to keep huge amount of gold and money.

Documents seized from Bank of Maharashtra showed that Chandani impersonated as Anita and used PAN and voter card in that name with her own photograph on it for operating the locker and the account,said the CBI remand application.

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The nature of recoveries from the accused show that they are habitually corrupt and (were) accepting illegal gratification from various clients, said the CBI,demanding the seven-day police custody.

The defence counsel opposed the CBI plea for seven-day police custody saying all searches have already

been conducted and recoveries have been effected.

The case is required to be thoroughly investigated and for that sustained interrogation of the accused persons is required. Accordingly,I am satisfied that prayer for police custody of accused persons is justified, special CBI judge OP Saini said.

Bhatia Group of Companies is engaged in trading of imported and indigenous coal with various private companies and PSUs through its company M/s Bhatia International Ltd and Bhatia Coal Sales Ltd located in Indore.

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The court ordered that the accused persons be medically examined every 48 hours and also allowed the family members and counsel to meet them during their custodial interrogation.