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The Uttar Pradesh government has recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the investment of provident fund contributions of UP Power Corporation employees in the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL).
The decision to hand over the case to the CBI was taken on Saturday evening.
Police have arrested two officials in the case. They have been identified as Praveen Kumar Gupta, former Secretary of the Power Sector Employees Trust, and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former Director (Finance) of UP Power Corporation.
According to a letter by the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board Engineers Association (UPSEBEA), the decision to deposit funds from the general provident fund (GPF) and contributory provident fund (CPF) in DHFL was taken by the trustees of the UP State Power Sector Employees Trust on April 21, 2014.
Also read:Employee funds of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation were parked in scam-hit DHFL
Surplus funds to the tune of ₹2,631.20 crore contributed by employees were deposited in DHFL’s fixed deposit scheme between March 2017 and December 2018.
According to the association, an amount of ₹1,600 crore belonging to Uttar Pradesh electricity employees and officers still remains deposited with DHFL. The employees have approached the State government seeking an assurance of getting their contributions returned.
Hitting out at the UP government, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted: “The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh invested the money from provident fund of State’s power corporation personnel in a defaulting company like DHFL. Whose interest was to be served by investing more than ₹2,000 crore of the employees’ hard earned money in such a company? Is it justified to play with the future of the employees?”
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is said to have ordered an investigation by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into alleged financial irregularities in DHFL after finding instances of suspected fund diversions.
DHFL came under the scanner in the wake of allegations that the company had siphoned off ₹ 31,000 crore in bank loans through layers of shell entities.
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