CBI registers disproportionate asset case

A suspended executive director of the Steel Authority of India Limited has been booked by the CBI for allegedly amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income.

The CBI had filed FIR against Bhuneswar Prasad Verma, the then Executive Director Rourkela Steel Plant under Steel Authority of India (now suspended and posted at Durgapur Steel Plant Burdwan) for accumulating Rs 2.24 crore of disproportionate assets.

The FIR alleged that in 2006 Verma had assets to the tune of Rs 1.28 lakh which swelled to 1.66 crore in 2017. The CBI claims that he had earned a total income of Rs 1.90 crore during the period while the total expenditure was Rs 2.49 crore.

The agency alleged that there could not be any savings by Verma as his expenditure was more than his earnings but the assets acquired by him between 2006 and 2017 were Rs 1.64 crore.

"Verma has acquired disproportionate assets (movable and immovable) to the tune of Rs 2.24 crore to his known sources of income during the aforesaid check period and the acquisition of the same is not likely to be accounted for satisfactorily by him," the FIR alleged.