The CBI has questioned senior IAS officers Alok Kumar and Aparna U in connection with alleged irregularities in the investment of over Rs 4,300 crore of provident fund of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) employees in the scam-hit DHFL and other housing finance companies, sources said on Sunday.
Mr Kumar, a 1988-batch officer, was questioned for over eight hours and Aparna U for nearly six hours on Saturday, the sources said, adding the grilling continued till late in the evening at the agency's office in Lucknow.
According to the Uttar Pradesh government website, Kumar is presently posted as Principal Secretary UP Infrastructure and Industrial Development while Aparna is posted as Secretary in Irrigation and Water Resources department of state government.
During the investigation of UPPCL PF scam, the CBI has learnt that over Rs 4, 323 crore of hard-earned savings of UPPCL employees under provident fund was allegedly invested in DHFL and other housing finance companies during the tenure of Kumar as UPPCL chairman in 2017-19, they said.
The agency has also found that out of the total investment, Rs 3,245 crore was allegedly invested in DHFL and other such companies with the clearance of Aparna U, a 2001-batch IAS officer, who was the Managing Director of UPPCL in 2017-19, they said.
According to allegations in the case taken over by the CBI, it was alleged that a total of Rs 4,122.70 crore was invested in the DHFL, out of which Rs 2,267.90 crore is still outstanding, officials said.
The CBI took over the investigation into the scam on March 5 this year after taking over the FIR registered by Hazratganj Police station in Lucknow, they said.
The Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) is facing multiple probes after a report suggested that the company, through layers of shell companies, allegedly siphoned off Rs 31,000 crore out of the total bank loan of Rs 97,000 crore.
It is also alleged that the officials of UPPCL conspired to get the provident funds deposited in schemes of DHFL circumventing the rules which did not encourage such investments.
Pravin Kumar Gupta, former secretary of the UP State Power Sector Employees'' Trust; and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former director, finance, of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL); have been named as accused for criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery.
Provident fund of the UPPCL employees were being invested in the fixed deposits of nationalised banks till October 2016. On a proposal of Gupta and former UPPCL managing director A P Mishra, the investment of funds started in PNB Housing since December 2016, according to the officials.
Mishra, Gupta and Dwivedi and eight others were arrested and are currently in judicial custody.
