The New Indian Express ·
CREST-IDFC First Bank fraud: CBI charges top government officer and his wife
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet against an IFoS officer who served as CEO of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST) and his wife for alleged misappropriation of Rs 75.4 crore of government funds from IDFC First Bank accounts, the agency said on Friday.
The federal probing agency has also named Vipam Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. as an accused. The wife of the accused, Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer Naveen Srivastava, served as director of the company, as per the agency. The funds were allegedly misappropriated from CREST accounts with IDFC First Bank.
The total quantum of the fraud in the case is Rs 75.4 crore.
According to the probe, during his tenure as CREST CEO, Srivastava entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused, allegedly misappropriated society funds and received illegal gratification by indulging in criminal misconduct as a public servant.
"His wife, who is the director of M/s Vipam Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., and the company have also been charge-sheeted for abetting the offence and for being part of the criminal conspiracy," CBI said.
The company allegedly received Rs 95 lakh of the defrauded amount and further used the same to acquire immovable property, the statement said.
The CBI has invoked charges of criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and using forged documents as genuine under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as bribery, criminal misconduct and abetment under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018.
Earlier, CBI had filed a chargesheet against five Haryana IAS officers and 14 others in the Rs 504-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case.
According to the CBI, public servants, in connivance with officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, illegally diverted funds of eight Haryana government departments and bodies from empanelled banks into specific branches of the two banks.
Among those chargesheeted, IAS officers Pankaj Agarwal and R K Singh were arrested and suspended, while a third IAS officer, Pradeep Kumar, was arrested in June on the day he was due to retire. Three more senior IAS officers have been chargesheeted in the case.