CBI arrests NALCO chief AK Srivastava, wife for taking bribe

THE Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), leading investigation agency in India on Friday arrested AK Srivastava, the chairman-cum-managing director of the National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) along with his wife Chandni Srivastava for allegedly accepting bribe. Two accomplices were also arrested. The CBI arrested Srivastava after it found how his wife was accepting illegal gratifications of three gold bricks, each weighing one kg from the wife of a middleman brokering a deal with a Madhya Pradesh-based private company.

Srivastava’s wife was operating a benami bank locker in the Bank of Maharashtra in Delhi. According to reports quoting CBI sources, the total recoveries amount to 10.188 kg gold and Rs 29.5 lakh in cash, and the total value of the seizures was about Rs 2.43 crore at current prices of gold.

A mechanical engineer by profession, AK Srivastava became the NALCO chief in April, 2009. He had done his B Tech in mechanical engineering and M tech in industrial engineering from IIT, Delhi. Srivastava has 30 years of professional experience in the public sector enterprises in different fields of engineering and management. (In picture: Nalco Building)

Action and Appointments

a) Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan , a 1976 batch Kerala cadre IAS, has clarified that there is no change in the policy of the government regarding pricing of petrol at retail and at refinery gate. Any reports to the contrary are incorrect. He made it clear that oil marketing companies continue to have freedom to determine the price of petrol. So wait for another round of petrol price hike!

b) Shaktikanta Das, a 1980 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS and joint secretary in the department of economic affairs under the finance ministry, has been appointed as additional secretary in the same department by temporarily upgrading the post held by the officer.