In one of the biggest bribery scandals in recent times, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the public sector National Aluminium Corporation Limited (NALCO) Abhay Kumar Srivastava, his wife Chandni Srivastava and two others.
Sleuths of the CBI also raided the residential and official premises of the NALCO chief in Bhubaneswar.
Sources in the CBI said that Ms. Chandni Srivastava was arrested from a branch of Bank of Maharashtra on Shahjahan Road here where she had gone to operate a locker. The sources said that the bank locker was in the name of neither Mr. Srivastava nor his wife, who was found to be carrying Rs. 3 lakh in her purse.
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The CBI claimed to have recovered Rs. 30 lakh in cash and about 10 kg of gold that is worth Rs. 2 crore at today's prices. Both Mr. Srivastava and his wife have been accused of corruption and bribery.
The two other persons arrested were identified as B.L. Bajaj and Anita Bajaj, who were allegedly acting as middlemen of the NALCO chief.
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The sources said CBI conducted searches at Indore, Delhi, and Noida, apart from Bhubaneswar as the sleuths were busy trying to unravel one of the most complicated bribery networks upon which they stumbled while mounting a surveillance over the NALCO CMD.
Mr. Srivastava had taken over as CMD of NALCO, headquartered in Bhubaneswar, in October 2009. A mechanical engineer by profession and a product of IIT, Delhi, he has served for nearly 30 years in various capacities in a number of public sector enterprises.