New Delhi: A special court in New Delhi Monday convicted the former NALCO chairman and managing director (CMD), Abhay Srivastava, his former colleague, B.L. Bajaj, and their wives in a money laundering case stemming from a 2011 bribery case.
Special Judge Shailender Malik ruled that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had provided sufficient evidence to prove the generation of proceeds of crime through impersonation, use of forged documents and receiving a bribe in connection with washed coal contracts awarded by National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO).
The court also convicted the wives, Chandni Srivastava and Anita Bajaj, on charges of concealment of the proceeds of the crime, specifically, 10 gold bars of 1 kg each in a bank locker.
The court was disposing of a 2014 money laundering case registered by the ED against the accused, including Shrivastava and Bajaj. The court had, in April 2015, taken cognisance of the ED’s prosecution complaint, setting the stage for a trial that concluded Monday with a conviction.
The ED’s money laundering case is based on a case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which booked the accused, as well as one Gurvinder Singh Bhatia, Jaswinder Singh Bhatia and Ratan Pal Singh Bhatia under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in February 2011.
Judge Malik noted that the four accused—Srivastava, Bajaj and their wives—acted in coordination. Srivastava and Bajaj both involved their wives in concealing 1 kg gold bars in a bank locker taken in the name of Anita Bajaj but operated by 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,” he further observed.
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‘Washed coal contract, gold bars in bank locker’
The case pertains to a tender floated by the NALCO in July 2010 for the sale of washed coal from its plant in Odisha’s Angul district.
Appointed as chairman and managing director of NALCO on 1 October 2009, Srivastava was also chairman of the Committee of Directors at the time.
The contract for the purchase of 2 lakh metric tonnes of washed coal was awarded to two firms: Maheshwari Brothers Limited and Bhatia International Limited, both based in Indore.
The CBI case involved the promoters of these two firms, which had secured tenders for the purchase of 1,20,000 metric tonnes and 80,000 metric tonnes of washed coal, respectively. They reached a deal with Srivastava to pay Rs 150 per tonne as a bribe negotiated with Bajaj.
Bijay Mandhani, the promoter of Maheshwari Brothers, revealed in his statement to the ED that he had negotiated the bribe amount of Rs 150 per metric tonne. He confessed to having paid Rs 1 crore to Bajaj in January 2011 for 1,20,000 metric tonnes of washed coal.
The bribe, however, was designed to be paid through Bajaj, a friend and former colleague from his time at National Thermal Power Corporation.
After receiving the bribe amount, Bajaj had 10 gold bars of 1 kg each made and stored them in a Bank of Maharashtra locker in his wife’s name.
As the CBI registered a case against Srivastava for receiving a bribe, it laid a trap at the bank and caught the wives of Srivastava and Bajaj operating the bank locker.
During the investigation, it was discovered that Chandni Srivastava had opened a benami bank locker in the name of Anita Bajaj by forging documents and her signature.
All four accused were earlier convicted in the CBI case in December 2023 on charges of forgery and impersonation, based on the statement of the then deputy manager of the bank.
“Moreover conspiracy among all the four accused persons in committing of scheduled offence, which generated the proceeds of crime, in itself is sufficient for proving the ingredients of Section 3 of PML Act,” Judge Malik noted in the judgment explaining conviction.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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