The CBI on Friday arrested Chairman-cum Managing Director of state-owned NALCO A K Srivastava and his wife besides two others in an alleged bribery case and claimed to have recovered 10 kg of gold bricks worth Rs 2.11 crore from a bank locker and nearly Rs 30 lakh in cash.
Besides the head of the Bhubaneswar-headquartered National Aluminium Company Limited(NALCO) and his wife Chandni, the other two arrested were an alleged middle man Bhushan Lal Bajaj and his wife Anita, official sources said. All the arrests were made in the Capital, the sources said.
The sources said Chandni allegedly accepted an illegal gratification of three gold bricks, each weighing one kg of 24-carat gold, the sources said.
The team nabbed Chandni along with Anita just after the duo had allegedly deposited these gold bricks in a bank locker in a Bank of Maharashtra branch in New Delhi, they said.
"This bank locker, in the name of wife of the middleman was being operated by the wife of CMD, NALCO as a benami. A search of this locker resulted in a further recovery of 7 more gold bricks of 1 kg each, golden ornaments weighing 188 grams and Indian currency of Rs. 9.5 lakhs," an official spokesperson said in a statement.
"All the four accused Chairman and Managing Director of NALCO, his wife and a middleman and his wife have been arrested and further investigations are continuing," the spokesperson said.
It is alleged that Bajaj was brokering a deal between the CMD and a Madhya Pradesh-based private Group of Companies, official sources said.
"Personal search of wife of CMD of NALCO also led to a recovery of Rs five lakh from her handbag and a key of another locker in the name of wife of middleman. Further search of this second locker led to recovery of Rs 15 lakhs in cash.
Hence total recoveries so far have been 10.18 kgs of gold and Rs 29.5 lakhs of cash, the overall value of which comes to approximately Rs 2.43 crores at current prices of gold," the spokesperson said.
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