New Delhi: National Aluminium Company Limited (NA-LCO’s) former chairman-cum-managing director Abhay Kumar Srivastava, his wife and five others were ordered to be put on trial by a Delhi court in an alleged corruption case.
Besides Srivastava, the court ordered framing of charges against his wife Chandini Srivastava, Bhu-shan Lal Bajaj, his wife Anita Bajaj, Gurwinder Singh Bhatia, Jaswinder Singh Bhatia and Ratan Pal Singh Bhatia in the case.
According to the CBI, Srivastava, who was CMD of Nalco in 2011, had instructed alleged middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj to convert the illegal gratification received from Indore-based Bhatia Group of Companies into gold and deliver it to him.
CBI had alleged that 10 gold bricks, which was part of illegal gratification, were found in the bank locker opened in Anita Bajaj's name on the photograph of Chandni Srivastava who used to operate the locker.
Special CBI judge Vinod Kumar ordered framing of charges against all the accused for alleged offen-ces under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC read with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“These days, bribery is not so simple as it was earlier. Now very sophisticated methods are being adopted by corrupt public servants and private persons who are hobnobbing with them. An illegal consideration may precede or succeed an official act bargained for,” the court said.
Solar scam: plea to examine Kerala CM turned down
Kochi: A commission probing the solar panel scam on Tuesday rejected prime accused Biju Radha-krishnan’s request that he be permitted to personally cross examine Oommen Chandy when the Chief Minister deposes before the panel on January 25 at its sitting in Thiruvanant-hapuram.
The Justice G. Sivaraman Comm-ission, however, permitted Radhakrishnan to cross examine the Chief Minister through a counsel.
During the deposition, Chandy will be examined on his office's alleged role in connection with the scam.
While rejecting Radhakrishnan's demand, the commission cited his present status of being an accused in 58 cases.
It agreed with the government counsel who said the accused's background and present situation must be considered before taking a decision on his demand for personal cross examination of the Chief Minister.
Radhakrishnan, currently serving life term in jail in a murder case, has to be taken to various courts in connections with the cases registered against him, it noted.
“He can be permitted to cross examine (the chief minister) through a counsel appointed by him,” the commission said.
It also directed necessary permission be given to Radhakrishnan to discuss the case with his counsel in jail.
The commission, however, permitted Radhakrishnan to personally examine his alleged partner in the scam Saritha S Nair while she deposes before the panel on January 27 and 28.
Ruling out an interim report in the case, the Commission said it was trying to submit the final report on the solar panel scam by April 27, this year.
The scam relates to the duping of several persons by the two prime accused -- Saritha and Radhakrishnan -- who had promised to install solar power panels for them.
The Commission, headed by retired High Court Judge G Sivarajan, has examined several people, including politicians from the Opposition, on whether the government suffered any financial loss due to the alleged deals.
While Saritha was granted bail after remaining behind bars for some nine months, Radhakrishnan is still in jail.
After the scam broke out, the opposition had demanded the resignation of Chandy as the names of two of his personal staff had come up during the probe.
