Chandigarh, Sep 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet against an Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer, the then CEO of Chandigarh’s green energy society CREST, his wife and a company in which she worked as director in a case linked to misappropriation of Rs 75 crore of official funds from IDFC First Bank accounts.
A CBI official said the chargesheet was filed against the then chief of Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) and forest service officer Navneet Srivastava, who is already in judicial custody, Vipam Consultancy and its director.
The accused have been charged with offences of criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine under BNS and offences of bribery, criminal misconduct and abetment under the Prevention of Corruption Act 2018, the CBI said.
The federal probe agency’s investigation revealed that Srivastava, while working as CEO of CREST, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused, misappropriated the funds and received illegal gratification by indulging in criminal misconduct as a public servant, the statement said.
His wife, who is the director of Vipam Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., and the company have also been chargesheeted for abetting the offence and being part of the criminal conspiracy.
This company received Rs 95 lakh out of the defrauded amount and further used the same to acquire immovable property, the CBI said.
The total quantum of the fraud in the CREST case is Rs 75.4 crore, the CBI said.
Srivastava was earlier arrested by the CBI in this case and is still in judicial custody, it said.
The CBI took over this case from the probe agencies in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Prior to the chargesheet filed on Friday, chargesheets have been filed against 13 other accused in this case, the statement said.
These cases are connected to the larger banking fraud at the Sector-32 Branch of IDFC First Bank, Chandigarh, wherein government funds of about Rs 504 crore belonging to eight departments and organisations of the Government of Haryana were siphoned off through forged and non-existent Fixed Deposits and fraudulent debit transactions, the CBI said.
The CBI had taken over the Haryana case from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau at the request of the state government.
In the Haryana case, the CBI has so far chargesheeted 37 accused. Further, the CBI has also taken over the third case pertaining to Smart City/Chandigarh Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh UT, and has filed a chargesheet against seven accused for defrauding the Municipal Corporation to the tune of Rs 78 crore.
All three cases are under further investigation to trace the fund trail and identify other accused persons.
The CBI said it is committed to bringing all those responsible to justice and to ensuring that the complete trail of the misappropriated public funds is identified and the proceeds of crime are effectively traced.
Source: IANS
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