Delhi court convicts former NALCO head, 3 others for money laundering

A Delhi court on Monday convicted Abhay Kumar Srivastava, former head of the National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), his wife Chandni Srivastava and two others for money laundering. 

Special Judge (PC Act) Shailendra Malik of Rouse Avenue Courts said that Enforcement Directorate (ED) was successful in proving generation of proceeds of crime and its laundering.

“In view of the aforesaid reasons, this court holds all the four accused i.e. A-1 Abhay Kumar Srivastava, A-2 Bhushan Lal Bajaj, A-3 Smt.Chandni Srivastava and A-4 Smt.Anita Bajaj guilty for offence under Section 3 read with Section 4 of PML Act. They all are convicted for the said offence,” the Court said. 

ED had started investigation based on first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in February 2011 against Abhay Kumar Srivastava, Chandni Srivastava as well as Bhushan Lal Bajaj and his wife Anita Bajaj. 

Abhay Srivastava is the former Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of NALCO.

It was alleged that Bhushan Bajaj acted as an intermediary to receive bribes from the Bhatia Group of Companies in return for extending undue official favours in relation to a tender floated by NALCO for purchase of two lakh tonnes of wash coal from its Captive Power Plant Unit at Angul in Odisha

Both Srivastava and Bajaj later involved their wives in the crime.

After considering the case, the Court concluded that bribes were paid in awarding the NALCO contract to Bhatia International.

Therefore, it convicted all four accused. 

ED was represented by its Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, Special Public Prosecutor NK Matta as well as advocates Anand Kirti, Faizan Khan, Vivek Gurnani, Pranjal Tripathi, Ilma Khan, Kartik Sabharwal and Bhawna Gandhi. 

Advocates Mayank Tripathi, Vaibhav Sharma, Vijay Shukla, Chiranjeev Mahto, Ambika Singh and Nishant Kuma appeared for Abhay Srivastava and Chandni Srivastava. 

Senior Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir and advocates SP Yadav and Md Imran Ahmad appeared for Bhushan Lal Bajaj and Anita Bajaj

[Read Judgment]