Delhi court convicts ex-NALCO CMD, wife, friend couple for money laundering

New Delhi: A special court in Delhi on Monday convicted former NALCO CMD Abhay Kumar Srivastava, his wife and two others under the anti-money laundering law in a bribery case linked to a coal-supply tender floated by the Navratna company in 2010.

The court of Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) Shailender Malik convicted Srivastava, his wife Chandni Srivastava, his friend Bhushan Lal (B L) Bajaj and Bajaj's wife, Anita Bajaj, "guilty" under section 3, read with section 4, of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The quantum of sentence is expected to be pronounced soon.

The PMLA provides for a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, apart from confiscation of assets attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the course of investigation.

The money-laundering case filed by the ED in March 2014 stems from a February 2011 FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Srivastava and some others.

The case against the former NALCO CMD pertained to alleged exchange of bribes in connection with a tender related to the purchase of two lakh tonnes of wash coal from its captive power plant located in Odisha's Angul.

The National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), a Navratna company, was founded on January 7, 1981 and it is one of the country's largest bauxite, alumina, aluminium and power complex. Its registered office is in Bhubaneswar.

Srivastava was alleged by the probe agencies to have taken bribes for this tender through B L Bajaj, his friend and former colleague at the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

Srivastava's wife, Chandni, was alleged to have "impersonated" Bajajs' wife, Anita, for keeping illegal gold bars and jewellery in a bank locker in Delhi.

"B L Bajaj acted as an intermediary to receive bribes from G S Bhatia of the Bhatia Group of Companies in return for extending undue official favours. Chandni Srivastava, using forged identity documents and the forged signatures of Anita Bajaj, impersonated her to open a bank account and locker," the ED had said.

The ED attached assets worth Rs 2.23 crore of Srivastava and filed a chargesheet against the four accused in March 2015.

The court said in its order that there was "prior concert and coordination" among the four accused, besides "prior meeting of mind".

"This court is of the considered view that there is sufficient evidence on the record establishing that all the accused conspired with each other in commission of offence of money laundering," it said.