The CBI has sought sanction from the Uttar Pradesh government to investigate the role of three senior bureaucrats in connection with alleged irregularities in the investment of over Rs 4,300 crore of provident fund of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) employees in scam-tainted DHFL and other housing finance companies.
The agency has sought the permission of the State government under Section 17 (A) of the amended Prevention of Corruption Act which provides for seeking prior sanction from the competent government before initiating any investigation against a government officer, official sources said.
The three IAS officers in the dock are Sanjay Agarwal, Aparna U and Alok Kumar.While Agarwal and Kumar are both 1984-batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre and the duo had held the post of UPPCL Chairman, Aparna U, a 2001-batch IAS, was the Managing Director of the power utility, they said.
Presently, Agarwal is holding charge of Secretary, Agriculture and Kumar is Secretary, Power at the Centre. Aparna U is posted as Principal Secretary in the State.
During the investigation of UPPCL PF scam, the CBI has found that over Rs 4, 323 crore of savings of UPPCL employees under provident fund were allegedly invested in DHFL and other housing finance companies, the sources said.
The CBI probe has also revealed that out of the total investment, Rs 3,245 crore was allegedly invested in DHFL and other such companies.
According to allegations in the case taken over by the CBI from the State police, it was alleged that a total of Rs 4,122.70 crore was invested in DHFL, out of which Rs 2,267.90 crore are still outstanding.
The CBI took over the investigation into the scam on March 5 last year after taking over the FIR registered by the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow.
The UPPCL officials allegedly also conspired to get the provident funds deposited in schemes of DHFL circumventing the rules which did not encourage such investments, they said.
Pravin Kumar Gupta, former Secretary of the UP State Power Sector Employees' Trust and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former Director, Finance, of UPPCL have been named as accused for criminal breach of trust, cheating and
forgery.
Provident funds of the UPPCL employees were being invested in fixed deposits of public sector banks till October 2016. On a proposal of Gupta and former UPPCL managing director AP Mishra, the investment of funds started in PNB housing in December 2016 and subsequently to DHFL and other such housing finance companies.
The Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) is facing multiple probes by different investing agencies after a report suggested that the company, through layers of shell companies, allegedly siphoned off Rs 31,000 crore out of the total bank loan of Rs 97,000 crore.
