Court orders framing of charges against ex-NALCO CMD, six others

NEW DELHI: National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO's) former Chairman-cum-Managing Director Abhay Kumar Srivastava, his wife and five others have been ordered to be put on trial by a Delhi court in an alleged corruption case.

Besides Srivastava, the court ordered framing of charges against his wife Chandini Srivastava, Bhushan Lal Bajaj, his wife Anita Bajaj, Gurwinder Singh Bhatia, Jaswinder Singh Bhatia and Ratan Pal Singh Bhatia in the case.

According to the CBI, Srivastava, who was CMD of NALCO in 2011, had instructed alleged middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj to convert the illegal gratification received from Indore-based Bhatia Group of Companies into gold and deliver it to him.

CBI had alleged that 10 gold bricks, which was part of illegal gratification, were found in the bank locker opened in Anita Bajaj's name on the photograph of Chandni Srivastava who used to operate the locker.

Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar ordered framing of charges against all the accused for alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC read with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

"These days, bribery is not of simplest forms as the same used to be in earlier times. Now very sophisticated methods are being adopted by corrupt public servants and private persons who are hobnobbing with them. An illegal consideration may precede or succeed an official act bargained for," the court said.

The court, which fixed January 20 for formal framing of charges, noted that the "entire gamut of material on record is sufficient to frame a charge as prayed in the charge-sheet."

"In nutshell, the charge sheet and the documents available on record, prima facie show that Abhay Kumar Srivastava was a public servant being ChairmancumManaging Director, National Aluminium Company, which had floated a tender for purchase of two lakh tonnes of washed coal at total cost of Rs 75 crore which was given to M/s Bhatia International Ltd," the court noted in its order.

The court further said "this tender was the motive of demand of illegal gratification of Rs 1.20 crore by A K Srivastava from Gurwinder Singh Bhatia (A5) of M/s Bhatia International Ltd through middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj (A2)."

During the arguments on framing of charges, the accused had denied allegations levelled against them by CBI.