More trouble is in store for some senior officials of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) as after waiting for over four months, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has finally decided to take over probe into the Rs 4,122-crore scam in which provident fund money of the power employees was invested in the tainted Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL).
The UP government had sent a letter to the CBI on November 2, 2019, asking the central agency to take over the investigation of the power employees’ PF scam from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of UP Police.
Official sources here on Friday confirmed that the EOW case (number 540/2019) registered against the accused under sections 409, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code at Hazratganj police station had been transferred to the CBI police station on Thursday.
As per the fresh FIR of the CBI, lodged on behalf of CBI Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Superintendent of Police Raghavendra Vatsa, CBI-ACB inspector Sabhajeet Chauhan will be the investigating officer in the case.
The CBI investigating officer would take all the documents of the case from the EOW in a day or two, sources said.
The EOW has already arrested 17 accused, including UPPCL’s former Managing Director AP Mishra, and all are in judicial custody at present.
The government had lodged a FIR on November 2, 2019 in the scam after it came to light that UPPCL employees’ PF trust had deposited the provident fund money in the DHFL, a company which was in deep trouble after facing several scam charges.
On the same day, the investigation was recommended to the CBI but the EOW was asked to continue with the probe till the central agency took over the probe.
In the EOW investigation, it was found that share brokers were involved in the scam along with some senior UPPCL officials.
On the other hand, the Enforcement Directorate had also started investigation in the alleged money laundering of UPPCL employees’ provident fund which was parked with DHFL. The EOW investigation report said that Rs 4,122 crore was parked with DHFL between March 2017 and December 2018. The funds were allegedly invested in connivance with officials managing the two UPPCL PF trusts via 28 brokerages or bogus firms. Funds were also parked in LIC Housing Finance and PNB Housing Finance, taking the total investment to Rs 6,600 crore. As of now, Rs 2,267 crore is still pending with DHFL.
The Bombay High Court had barred the DHFL from making fresh repayments on account of a different money laundering probe by the ED.
However, when the UPPCL employees staged protest over the scam, the Yogi Adityanath government had made a commitment that the government would bear all the loss and the employees would not suffer.
