New Delhi, March 1: A top executive of an Indore-based company was today arrested for allegedly paying crores in bribes to former Nalco chief A.K. Srivastava, who was held last week on corruption charges.

Ratan Pal was picked up from the Delhi office of the Bhatia Group of Companies. Agency officials said Pal made the payments to Srivastava on the firm’s behalf to bag contracts. “He allegedly paid huge bribes for getting contracts,” CBI spokesperson Vineeta Thakur said.

The Bhatia group is engaged in trading coal with private companies and public-sector units through sister concerns Bhatia International Ltd and Bhatia Coal Sales Ltd.

Srivastava and his wife Chandni were arrested last week in Delhi along with a couple. B.L. Bajaj and his wife Anita acted as conduits for collecting the bribes.

Ten kg of gold bricks (worth Rs 2.15 crore) and Rs 29.5 lakh in cash were seized from Chandni’s bank lockers.

Their wealth is still tumbling out. “We seized additional cash and jewellery worth Rs 22 lakh from Chandni’s bank lockers in Noida yesterday,” said another CBI officer.