A Delhi court has ordered framing of charges against National Aluminium Company Ltd’s (NALCO) former CMD Abhay Kumar Srivastava, his wife and two others on an alleged money laundering complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Besides Srivastava, his wife Chandini Srivastava, alleged middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj and his wife Anita Bajaj were ordered to be put on trial by the court for the alleged offences under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
This is the second case in which court has ordered framing of charges against these four accused as they were also put on trial along with three others in an alleged corruption case lodged by the CBI.
The court had also framed charges against Srivastava and his wife in a separate alleged disproportionate assets case.
While ordering framing of charges under the PMLA against the four accused, Special Judge Vinod Kumar observed that the complaint and material placed before him by the ED discloses a prima facie case against them.
“I am not inclined to discuss any further aspects of the case because the same have been fully covered in the complaint. Perusal of the complaint and material on record discloses a prima facie case under section 3 punishable under section 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act against all the accused persons,” the judge said and fixed the matter for January 30 for formal framing of charges against the accused.
During the arguments, the counsel appearing for these four accused had told the court that as per complaint, the alleged offence had taken place in 2011 whereas section 3 of the PMLA, which deals with the offence of money laundering, was amended with effect from February 15, 2013.
The defence counsel had also argued that new amendment was not applicable to this alleged offence.
ED’s special public prosecutor N K Matta had argued in the court that the 2013 amendment was only explanatory in nature and it does not in any manner affects section 3 of PMLA.
The court, in its order, said that facts of the case were fully covered even in the pre-amended section 3 of PMLA.
These four accused and three others were put on trial in a separate corruption case lodged by CBI in which it had alleged that Srivastava, who was CMD of NALCO in 2011, had instructed Bajaj to convert illegal gratification received from a company into gold and deliver it to him.
CBI had alleged that three gold bricks, which were part of alleged gratification, were found in the bank locker opened in Anita Bajaj’s name on the photograph of Chandini Srivastava, who used to operate the locker.
During the arguments on framing of charges, the accused had denied allegations levelled against them.