UP: Rs 2600-crore fund invested in DHFL, two held

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Nov 3 (ANI): Two officers have been arrested in a case related to the alleged investment of over Rs 2,600 crores of Uttar Pradesh power employees' provident fund money in scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL).
Praveen Kumar Gupta, who was the secretary of the Uttar Pradesh State Power Employees Trust and the Provident Fund Trust of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation in 2016, and the then director, finance, Sudhanshu Dwivedi were arrested after an FIR was lodged against them at the Hazratganj police station here.
The FIR was registered against the officers on the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday, a government spokesperson said in a statement.
The Chief Minister has directed the home department and the Director-General of Police (DGP) to take strong action against the officers for diverting provident fund money into DHFL, a private firm, against the government norms, the spokesperson said.
As per the documents available, Gupta was the in-charge of the CPF trust and the General Provident Fund (GPF) trust and he got an approval from Dwivedi to divert more than 50 per cent of the provident funds' money to DHFL, as against the guidelines of the Union Finance Ministry, the statement said.
The officers were aware that DHFL was not a scheduled commercial bank and was an unsafe private organisation, the statement added.
According to available records, Rs 2,631.20 crore of employees' GPF was invested in DHFL out of which Rs 1185.5 crore has been returned by the finance company. A total of Rs 1491.50 crore of CPF was invested in the company out of which Rs 669.30 crore has been received by the trust. DHFL is yet to return Rs 2267.9 crore (principal amount) of GPF and CPF to the trust, the statement said.
UP Minister Shrikant Sharma has said that the government will take strict action against the accused in line with its zero-tolerance policy. "We will ensure that no harm comes to any employees. All employees are like members of my family," he said. (ANI)