CBI takes over probe into UPPCL provident fund case, files first FIR

nLUCKNOW: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe of alleged irregularities in the handling of provident fund savings of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) employees, around four months after the state government recommended that the central agency do so.

The CBI registered a first information report (FIR) in the matter at its Lucknow Anti-corruption Bureau office on Thursday. A senior CBI official said the agency had taken over the case in view of the recommendation sent by the state government on November 2, 2019.

UPPCL officials invested employees’ provident fund savings of ~4,122.5 crore in Mumbaibased Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) between March 2017 and October 2019, allegedly in violation of the norms, to earn lucrative commission through brokerage firms operated by their family members, friends and acquaintances.

DHFL has gone bankrupt and become the test case of resolution of a non-bank lender under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The senior CBI official cited above said on condition of anonymity that the FIR had been registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating), 467 (forging official documents), 468 ( forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (passing off forged document as genuine) against the then UPPCL employees trust secretary, Praveen Kumar Gupta, and the then finance director, Sudhanshu Diwvedi.

CBI officials on Friday approached the officials of UP police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW), who had been probing the alleged irregularities to collect documents related to the scam.

The EOW had arrested 17 people, including former UPPCL managing director, AP Mishra, Dwivedi and Gupta.