Arrested NALCO chief faces hearing today

AK Srivastava, the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO), and his wife who were arrested by the CBI for allegedly accepting bribe will be produced before a special court on Saturday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Srivastava, his wife Chandni Srivastava, along with two accomplices, Bhushan Lal Bajaj and Anita Bajaj, for accepting bribe.

"All the four will be produced before the CBI special court today (Saturday) at Patiala House," a senior CBI official said.

The CBI arrested Srivastava when his wife was accepting an illegal gratification of three gold bricks, each weighing one kg, of 24 carat gold. His wife was accepting the bribe from the wife of a middleman who was brokering a deal between the CMD and a Madhya Pradesh-based private company, the CBI said in a statement on Friday night.

At the time of the CBI raid, Srivastava's wife, accompanied by the wife of the middleman, had just deposited the three gold bricks in a bank locker of the Bank of Maharashtra in the national capital.

The bank locker was in the name of the wife of the middleman. It was being operated by Srivastava's wife "as benami".

A search of the locker revealed seven more gold bricks of 1 kg each, golden ornaments weighing 188 grams and Indian currency of Rs 9.5 lakh. A search of Srivastava's wife led to the recovery of Rs 5 lakh from her handbag and the key of another locker in the name of the wife of the middleman.