The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh Police speeded up its probe into the multi-crore rupees provident fund scam in the UP Power Corporation Limited and would now grill the three directors of the Power Employees Trust who were taken on three days’ police custody remand on Thursday.
They include former UPPCL MD Ayodhya Prasad Mishra.
Though the state government has claimed that it has recommended a CBI probe into the investment of power employees provident fund in DHFL, till date there has been no response from the Centre over the issue. No UP official is ready to comment on the matter.
Senior IPS officer Anand Kulkarni, who was recently transferred from Varanasi as its district police chief, has been made the head of the investigating team in this case.
Sources said police have got the remand of all the three arrested officials — former UPPCL MD AP Mishra, former Director (Finance) of UPPCL Employees Trust Sudhanshu Dwivedi and General Manager of the Trust PK Gupta - for three days from Thursday morning.
Though the police had sought a week’s remand for AP Singh and others, the court only gave it for three days starting from 10:00 am on Thursday to 10:00 am on Sunday.
“Now the investigating team will bring all the three arrested officials at one table to cross-examine them,” sources said.
Interestingly, the grilling of Mishra by the EOW may also unfold large-scale corruption in the department besides the employees provident fund scam and many senior power employees and some prominent journalists fear that their names too may crop up during the probe.
While, AP Mishra was arrested on Wednesday, the other two officials were arrested on Saturday after the scam in which the power employees trust of the UPPCL invested Rs 2600 crores in the controversial DHFL, came to light, DHFL is reported to have link with underworld.
UP Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma has blamed the previous Akhilesh Yadav government for the scam while Samajwadi Party has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state for the irregularity.
Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, are staging protests on the roads against the BJP while the power employees are holding demonstrations in front of the Power department headquarters in Lucknow, demanding removal of UPPCL chairman and guarantee by the government for the GPF and EPF money of the employees.
