NALCO CMD, wife remanded in CBI custody till Mar 3

New Delhi, Feb 26 (PTI) A Delhi court today remandedNALCO Chairman-cum-Managing Director Abhay Kumar Srivastava,his wife and two others arrested in a bribery case in CBIcustody till March 3.

"The case is required to be thoroughly investigatedand for that sustained interrogation of the accused persons isrequired. Accordingly, I am satisfied that prayer for policecustody of accused persons is justified," Special CBI judgeO P Saini said.

The CBI had yesterday arrested NALCO CMD Abhay KumarSrivastava, his wife Chandani Srivastava, middleman BhushanLal Bajaj and his spouse Anita Bajaj and had recovered about10 kgs of gold bricks and cash amounting to about Rs 30 lakh.

The investigating agency submitted that accusedBhushan Lal Bajaj was acting as the middleman for Abhay KumarSrivastava for arranging bribe money by corrupt means from thebidders and suppliers of NALCO.

It told the court that Bajaj was acting as a middlemanfor obtaining official favours for Bhatia Group of Companiesfrom Srivastava and in lieu of the same he had collected hugeillegal gratification on behalf of Srivastava from G S Bhatia,the CMD of Bhatia Group of Companies.

It also claimed that Srivastava had instructed Bajajto convert the illegal gratification from Bhatia group ofcompanies into gold and to deliver it to him.

The CBI submitted that the huge amount of gold andmoney were deposited in two bank lockers here.

The defence counsel opposed the CBI plea for seven-daypolice custody saying all searches have already been conductedand recoveries have been effected.