NALCO chairman arrested in bribery case

New Delhi, Feb 25 (PTI) CBI today arrested Chairman-cumManaging Director of state-owned NALCO A K Srivastava and hiswife besides two others in an alleged bribery case and claimedto have recovered 10 kg of gold bricks worth Rs 2.11 crorefrom a bank locker and nearly Rs 30 lakh in cash.

Besides the head of the Bhubaneswar-headquarteredNational Aluminium Company Limited(NALCO) and his wifeChandni, the other two arrested were an alleged middle manBhushan Lal Bajaj and his wife Anita, official sources saidtonight. All the arrests were made in the Capital, the sourcessaid.

The sources said Chandni allegedly accepted an illegalgratification of three gold bricks, each weighing one kg of24-carat gold, the sources said.

The team nabbed Chandni along with Anita just after theduo had allegedly deposited these gold bricks in a bank lockerin a Bank of Maharashtra branch in New Delhi, they said.

"This bank locker, in the name of wife of the middlemanwas being operated by the wife of CMD, NALCO as a benami. Asearch of this locker resulted in a further recovery of 7 moregold bricks of 1 kg each, golden ornaments weighing 188 gramsand Indian currency of Rs. 9.5 lakhs," an officialspokesperson said in a statement.

"All the four accused Chairman and Managing Director ofNALCO, his wife and a middleman and his wife have beenarrested and further investigations are continuing," thespokesperson said.

It is alleged that Bajaj was brokering a deal betweenthe CMD and a Madhya Pradesh-based private Group ofCompanies, official sources said.

"Personal search of wife of CMD of NALCO also led to arecovery of Rs five lakh from her handbag and a key of anotherlocker in the name of wife of middleman. Further search ofthis second locker led to recovery of Rs 15 lakhs in cash.

Hence total recoveries so far have been 10.18 kgs of gold andRs 29.5 lakhs of cash, the overall value of which comes toapproximately Rs 2.43 crores at current prices of gold," thespokesperson said.