CBI files FIR in Uttar Pradesh EPF scam

LUCKNOW: Five months months after the Yogi Adiyanath government had asked the Centre for a CBI probe into Rs 2,268 crore Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) investment scam in Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), the CBI registered an FIR in connection with the case late on Friday.
The FIR was lodged against Pravin Kumar Gupta, former secretary of the UP State Power Sector Employees' Trust; and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former director, finance of UPPCL.
The CBI has booked the duo under charges of breach of trust, cheating, forgery for cheating, and using forged document as genuine.
The Yogi government had asked for a CBI probe into the scam on November 3 last year and simultaneously had also instructed the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the UP police to carry out an investigation.
Following its investigation, the EOW had also indicted former MD AP Mishra along with Gupta and Dwivedi for fraudulently dealing with a private firm.
EOW in its chargesheet had stated that Mishra had forged signatures on dealings with private firms from 2016-17, which were against the norms, while Gupta and Dwivedi jointly took a decision to invest in PNB Housing Finance Ltd and Life Insurance Corporation against the norms. The role of Dwivedi and Gupta was traced during the probe of seven shell companies.
EOW in its chargesheet had also stated that Lalit Goyal, a chartered accountant, had arranged for the three arrested senior officials of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited - PK Gupta, Sudhanshu Diwedi and AP Mishra - to withdraw Rs 12 crore from these accounts, revealing a pre-planned ploy hatched together by SMC and UPCCL to route money back to the officials.