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In a startling revelation, the addresses of five out of 14 investment brokerage firms – hired by UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) authorities for investment of employees’ provident fund – were found to be fake, said senior officials UP police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
These 14 firms were hired by UPPCL authorities since March 2017 for investment of employees’ PF in Mumbai-based Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), said an EOW official.
However, only two investment brokerage firms were found to be genuine while the addresses of five were found fake, he said.
The addresses of the remaining seven firms, whose verification was still to be done, were also suspected to be fake. These findings suggested that five firms were non-existent and floated just on papers to earn high percentage brokerage from the UPPCL, said the official.
The track record of 12 of these 14 firms revealed that they charged brokerage only for investment of UPPCL funds. Most of the suspicious firms had addresses of districts of western UP, Uttarakhand and Delhi, he added.
The official said the investment through brokerage firms was revealed during the interrogation of former managing director of UPPCL AP Mishra, director of finance Sudhanshu Dwivedi and secretary of the trust Praveen Kumar Gupta who were taken into police custody remand by EOW.
{{/usCountry}}The official said the investment through brokerage firms was revealed during the interrogation of former managing director of UPPCL AP Mishra, director of finance Sudhanshu Dwivedi and secretary of the trust Praveen Kumar Gupta who were taken into police custody remand by EOW.
{{/usCountry}}Dwivedi and Gupta were sent to jail in judicial custody after their police custody ended on Saturday while Mishra was sent to jail after his police custody period ended on Sunday morning.
Confirming the development, another senior EOW official said they were probing further links of UPPCL authorities with those associated with brokerage firms.
He said ₹41,225 million was invested in DHFL between 2017 and 2019. Of this, around ₹18,543 million was recovered on maturity of FDs till September 2019, he explained.
Houses of Mishra and Dwivedi in Lucknow were searched on Thursday while Gupta’s Agra residence was searched on Friday. The duo was arrested on November 2, after the state government got an FIR registered against them for their alleged involvement in the scam while Mishra was arrested on November 5, after the EOW team found evidences about his alleged involvement in it.
DHFL OFFICIAL SUMMONED
A UP head of DHFL and its former employees have been summoned for questioning. The EOW will try to extract more information from them about the investments and involvement of UPPCL authorities in the scam, said an official.