Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested Thursday two more people in connection with the UP Power Corporation’s Rs 2,600-crore PF investment in scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), taking the total number of arrests to five, a senior official said.
“Abhinav Gupta and his friend Ashish Chowdhury have been arrested in the case,” RP Singh, Director General, EOW, told this agency PTI here. Three people were earlier arrested in connection with this case.
The arrests followed an FIR that was filed at the Hazratganj police station here November 2 against Praveen Kumar Gupta, former secretary of the Uttar Pradesh State Power Employees’ Trust and the Provident Fund Trust of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former director of finance at the UPPCL. Both Gupta and Dwivedi were arrested on the same day.
Abhinav is the son of Praveen Kumar Gupta, and sources said he played a key role in transferring the provident fund (PF) money to housing finance firm DHFL.
Three days later November 5, AP Mishra, former managing director of the UPPCL, was also arrested in the case that has triggered a war of words between UP Power Minister Shrikant Sharma and the opposition, especially the Congress.
The UP had earlier recommended a CBI probe in the case. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the DG of the Economic Offences Wing to investigate the matter till the CBI takes over.
Earlier in the day, several Uttar Pradesh power employees and their family members took to streets to protest against the alleged scam, with an organisation representing them calling for a two-day strike.
“Employees demand that the UP government guarantee payment of provident fund and arrest a former CMD of the UPPCL,” the Vidhyut Karamchari Syankut Sangharsh Samiti (VKSSS) said. It added that workers will boycott work November 18 and 19.
The investment in DHFL was made between March 2017 and December 2018, the body claimed.
VKSSS coordinator Shailendra Dubey said provident fund of employees should be retrieved by the government and officials responsible should be brought to book.
The Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister has said that the government is working on alternatives means to ensure payment to UPPCL employees.
“The state government is acting strictly against those officials who were involved in illegally transferring PF money to DHFL under the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) regime in 2014,” said Shrikant Sharma.
PTI