CBI registers FIR in UPPCL PF scam in UP

The CBI has finally registered an FIR involving a scam over "illegal investment" of employees' provident fund. The PF money was allegedly invested in a private firm, Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), currently facing money laundering charges.

The FIR was registered on Friday night, almost five months after the Yogi Adityanath government had sought a CBI probe into the Rs 2,268 crore Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) investment scam in the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL).

The FIR was lodged against Pravin Kumar Gupta, former secretary of the UP State Power Sector Employees' Trust and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former director, finance of UPPCL.

The CBI has booked the two officials under charges of breach of trust, cheating, forgery for cheating, and using forged document as genuine.

Following its investigation, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had also indicted former Managing Director A.P. Mishra along with Gupta and Dwivedi for fraudulently dealing with a private firm.

The EOW, in its charge sheet, had stated that Mishra had forged signatures on dealings with private firms from 2016-17, which were against the norms, while Gupta and Dwivedi jointly took a decision to invest in DHFL against the norms.

The role of Dwivedi and Gupta was traced during a probe into seven shell companies.

The EOW, in its charge sheet, had also stated that Lalit Goyal, a chartered accountant, had arranged for the three arrested senior officials of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited - PK Gupta, Sudhanshu Diwedi and AP Mishra - to withdraw Rs 12 crore from these accounts, revealing a plot hatched together by SMC and UPCCL to route money back to the officials. IANS