A special Enforcement Directorate (ED) court has convicted former Nalco CMD (Chairman-cum-Managing Director), Abhay Kumar Srivastava, along with his wife and two associates, in a money laundering case. They were found guilty of receiving illegal gratification.
The case against Srivastava dates back to his tenure as the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO). Allegations surfaced that Srivastava, in 2011, had taken a bribe from a private firm in exchange for awarding lucrative contracts. Specifically, it was alleged that Srivastava instructed an alleged middleman, Bhushan Lal Bajaj, to convert illegal gratification received from the Indore-based Bhatia Group of Companies into gold. The CBI alleged that 10 gold bricks, which were part of the illegal gratification, were found in a bank locker opened in Anita Bajaj's name, with Srivastava's wife, Chandini Srivastava, operating the locker.
In 2014, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets, including gold bricks and cash worth approximately Rs 2.15 crore, belonging to Abhay K. Srivastava and his associates in connection with money laundering and corruption. The ED case stemmed from a 2012 CBI case that named Srivastava and B. L. Bajaj for "illegal acquisition of cash by the CMD when he was in the chair for allotment of tenders". Investigations revealed that the assets in Srivastava's locker at the Bank of Maharashtra were disproportionate to his known sources of income.
In 2016, a Delhi court ordered the framing of charges against Abhay Kumar Srivastava, his wife Chandini Srivastava, and five others in the alleged corruption case. The court noted that NALCO had floated a tender for the purchase of two lakh tonnes of washed coal at a total cost of Rs 75 crore, which was awarded to M/s Bhatia International Ltd. The court further stated that this tender was the motive for demanding illegal gratification of Rs 1.20 crore by A.K. Srivastava from Gurwinder Singh Bhatia of M/s Bhatia International Ltd through middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj.
In related news, in 2009, the Orissa High Court had stayed the conviction of former NALCO chairman S.K. Tamotia in a graft case where a CBI judge had sentenced Tamotia to three years in jail for possessing disproportionate assets.
