A special CBI court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of suspended Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and former Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) chief executive officer Navneet Srivastava till August 5 in the alleged ₹75-crore CREST fund diversion case.
Event Context
Special CBI judge Bhawna Jain passed the order after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought a 14 day extension of Srivastava’s judicial custody. The accused, who is lodged in judicial custody, was produced before the court through video conferencing. The court observed that there were “reasonable grounds” to remand the accused and noted that the investigation in the case is still pending.
Srivastava was arrested by the CBI on June 17, a day after the agency filed its first chargesheet in the case. Investigators have alleged that during his tenure as CREST CEO, funds parked in three CREST accounts maintained with IDFC First Bank’s Sector 32 branch were siphoned off through unauthorised transactions and routed to shell companies, causing an alleged loss of around ₹75 crore to the Chandigarh administration run society.
The agency has alleged that a portion of the diverted funds reached a private company in which Srivastava’s wife and a close relative were directors. The alleged fraud came to light after reconciliation of CREST’s bank accounts revealed nearly 300 unauthorised transactions.
Along with the principal loss, investigators have also alleged an interest loss, taking the total suspected fraud to over ₹83 crore. The case forms part of the wider IDFC First Bank fund diversion investigation being probed by the CBI.
