
Supreme Court postpones hearing on accused’s bail plea in the UPPCL PF scam
On Monday, the Supreme Court postponed the hearing of a bail plea by a person accused of embezzling monies of 42,000 employees of three Electricity Corporations of Uttar Pradesh. He had challenged the Allahabad High Court’s decision to disallow his bail plea earlier. The Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Krishna Murari will hear the matter on May 7.
On the complaint of Secretary, Trust of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), an FIR under Section 409, 420, 467, 471, 120B IPC and 7A and 8 of the Prevention and Corruption Act, 1988 had been filed against petitioner Abhinav Gupta. The FIR was also against the father of the accused applicant, who is a former Secretary (Trust).
The name of the accused-applicant, who is the son of one of the accused, had been inserted during the course of investigation, because he was found engaged in the alleged scam.
In 2016, the accused persons started investing the funds of the employees of the company in PNB housing term deposits. Along with that, approximately Rs 2,631 crores were invested in a private institution named Dewan Housing Finance Ltd illegally, with the consent of the managing director, who is also one of the accused. The accused also falsified and fabricated minutes of meetings of the board of trustees.
The investigation has disclosed that accused public servants abused their official positions as public servants and formulated a criminal conspiracy to invest funds of General Provident Fund and Central Provident Fund Trust to the tune of Rs 1,519.6 crore in PNB Housing Finance Company Ltd, Rs 514 Cr in LIC Housing Finance and Rs 4,122.7 Cr in DHFL. Thus, total funds (Rs 6,156.3 Cr) of thousands of employees of UP Power Corporation Ltd. were invested in some private housing finance companies against the rules and guidelines and out of the aforesaid funds. Funds to the tune of Rs 2,267.9 Cr have been misappropriated by the accused.