india

Updated: Nov 10, 2019 00:22 IST

LUCKNOW: After a week-long investigation, the UP Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Saturday zeroed in on 14 investment brokerage firms through which the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) employees’ provident fund were invested in Mumbai-based Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFCL), senior police officials privy to the investigation said.

The officials said investment through the brokerage firms was revealed during the interrogations of former UPPCL managing director AP Mishra, director (finance) Sudhanshu Dwivedi and trust secretary Praveen Kumar Gupta who were taken into police remand by the EOW.

Dwivedi and Gupta were sent to jail as their police custody ended on Saturday afternoon, while Mishra’s police custody period will end on Sunday morning.

EOW director general Rajendra Pal Singh said UPPCL authorities hired these 14 firms, of which only two have been operational and have helped other corporations invest money.

Another EOW official privy to the investigation said they were probing links of UPPCL authorities with the brokerage firms. He said 12 of these firms were suspected to have been formed using fake addresses.

“Before employees’ provident funds investment in DHFCL in March, 2017, the employees trust and the UPPCL authorities invested ₹500 million of contributory provident funds and ₹500 million of general provident funds in PNB Housing in December, 2016,” the official said. A total of ₹41,225 million funds had been invested in DHFCL between 2017 and 2019. Of this, ₹18,543 million was recovered on maturity of fixed deposits till September 2019.