A city court on Saturday remanded the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the National Aluminium Company (Nalco), A.K. Srivastava, middleman Bhushan Lal Bajaj and their wives to CBI custody till March 3. All the four accused had been arrested by the CBI on Friday for allegedly being involved in graft and had recovered gold bricks worth over `2 crores in gold and `15 lakhs in cash. The CBI told the court that the accused Nalco CMD was a “habitual corrupt”.
Special CBI judge O.P. Saini, after hearing the arguments from both the sides, remanded the four accused, including Chandani Srivastava (wife of A.K. Srivastava) and Anita Bajaj (wife of B.L. Bajaj), to March 3 saying the allegations against them were very serious. The court also took into account the fact that Mr Srivastava was holding a very high position. The CBI had demanded seven-day custody saying the entire racket of the middleman Mr Bajaj and Mr Srivastava needed to be unearthed. The agency also told the court that they will have to scrutinise several incriminating documents recovered during the searches at the residences of the accused. Even as the proceedings were going on, Chandani broke down in the court and sought to take all the blame on herself and maintaining that her husband was innocent.