EPF Investment Row: Yogi Government Nabs Top Officials For Investing Trust Funds With DHFL, Transfers Case To CBI

Adhering to its zero-tolerance policy on corruption, Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath's government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has registered an FIR in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scam case and arrested two senior government officials.

The state government has also decided to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The two officials, taken into police custody on Saturday (2 November) evening, were accused of obliging a private firm, Deewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), allegedly linked to underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim's aide late Iqbal Mirchi.

A senior official of the CM's Office in Lucknow said that CM Adityanath took a very serious note of the financial irregularities committed by senior officials of state-owned UP Power Sector Employees Trust, who violated norms while investing Rs 2,631 crore of the trust's funds with a controversial private firm, DHFL.

The officials arrested by the police have been identified as Praveen Kumar Gupta, the then Secretary of the Power Sector Employees Trust, and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, the then Director (Finance) of UP Power Corporation.

On UP government's recommendation, the probe into the case will be transferred to the CBI. However, till the CBI takes over the probe in the days to come, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the UP police will continue to investigate the case.

As per the FIR, both the officials arrested by the police did not seek written permission from the top heads in the government before transferring funds to DHFL, whose promoters, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, were recently grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for their connection with firms linked with the D-Company run by Dawood Ibrahim.

It should be noted that massive funds were transferred to the DHFL by the UP Power Sector Employees Trust, beginning 17 March 2017, two days before CM Adityanath took oath as the CM of UP.

(With inputs from IANS)