Delhi Court Convicts Former NALCO MD AK Srivastava & 3 Others For Money Laundering

A Delhi Court on Monday convicted Abhay Kumar Srivastava, former Chairman cum Managing Director of the National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO), a Public Sector Undertaking, for the offence of money laundering under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Apart from Srivastava, the Special PMLA Court in Delhi convicted three other individuals, Bhushan Lal Bajaj, Smt. Chandni Srivastava and Smt. Anita Bajaj(who are the wives of Srivastava and BL Bajaj respectively).

The case arose from the corruption case filed by the CBI in 2011, relating to the tender for the purchase of 2 lakhs tonne of wash coal from NALCO's Captive Power Plant Unit at Angul, Odisha. The CBI's allegation was that Srivastava has been collecting illegal gratifications against tender approved by NALCO from suppliers through Bhushan Lal Bajaj.

ED, which registered a case under the PMLA based on the predicate case (CBI FIR), recovered ten gold bars of 1 kg from a locker, which. was opened on the basis of forged documents and operated by impersonation in the name of Anita Baja used by Chandni Srivastava. The Court observed that the conversion of bribe amount into gold bars was not necessary to be separately proved as the recovery of the gold bars was in itself evidence of money laundering. All four accused were earlier convicted of the scheduled offence.

Special Judge Shailender Malik, Spl. Judge (PC Act) CBI-21, Rouse Avenue Courts, observed :

"This court finds that there was prior concert and coordination among the four accused. A-1 A.K. Srivastava and A-2 B.L. Bajaj both involved their wives respectively i.e. A-3 and A-4 in concealing "Gold Bars" of 1 kg each by keeping in a Bank locker taken in the name of wife of A-2 i.e. A-4 Anita Bajaj, however was being operated by wife of A-1 i.e. A-4 Ms.Chandni Srivastava. These circumstances, in itself reflect prior meeting of mind of accused persons. In this context it is important to note that there cannot be direct evidence of conspiracy hatched among accused persons. Therefore this court is of 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."

Case : ED vs. Abhay Kumar Kumar Srivastava & Ors. CT Cases No.37/2019

Click here to read the order