(Top) A K Srivastava and wife Chandni being produced at the CBI court on Saturday. (Prem Singh and PTI)

New Delhi, Feb. 26: The Nalco boss arrested for bribery tried to wriggle out in court today, letting his wife take all the blame.

“I was not on the spot when the CBI arrested my wife and Anita. Why am I being implicated in the case? I will lose my job if I spend two days in CBI custody. Sir, this will cause irreparable damage to me,” Abhay Kumar Srivastava, 58, pleaded with folded hands in the CBI special court before whispering into his wife’s ears.

Chandni, 53, who broke down in court, echoed him. “The bank account and locker is in my name. My husband had nothing to do with it. Please release him as he is not involved,” she told the judge.

Judge .P. Saini remanded the Srivastavas and the couple arrested with them — Bhushan Lal Bajaj, 62, and his wife Anita, 57, who acted as conduits to negotiate and accept bribes — in CBI custody for five days till March 3.

Srivastava, against whom the CBI has filed a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, was today suspended as chairperson and managing director of Nalco.

“The nature of recoveries from the accused persons shows they are habitually corrupt and accepted illegal gratification from various clients,” a CBI officer told the court.

The CBI, which seized over 10kg of gold and around Rs 30 lakh in cash from two bank lockers yesterday, has frozen other lockers containing more gold bricks, the officer said.

Chandni had a PAN card and a voter identity card with her photograph but Anita Bajaj’s name, which she had used to open the two lockers from where the gold and cash was seized, the CBI said.

Yesterday, the two women were arrested after they deposited three gold bricks weighing a kg each in the locker of the Bank of Maharashtra’s Shahjahan Road branch near India Gate. The men were arrested after Anita, who teaches in a school in Noida where both families live, confessed they were involved.

The CBI had been tipped off that Bhushan Lal had received a huge bribe from Gurvinder Singh Bhatia, head of the Indore-based Bhatia Group of Companies that is involved in coal trading, for award of some contracts.

A couple of days ago, Bajaj asked Anita to contact a Noida jeweller to convert the cash into gold. On Thursday, the jeweller called up Bajaj to say three bricks were ready and offered to deliver them. But Bajaj asked his wife to pick them up in the evening.

Yesterday, Anita went to Chandni’s house and handed over the gold. After a while, both left for the bank, with the CBI officers watching them.

Bajaj, who had retired from a private company, has been a close friend of Srivastava’s for five years now, the CBI officer said.

A mechanical engineer, Srivastava joined Nalco as its boss in 2009. Before this, he headed Cement Corporation of India and has also worked with NTPC and Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd.

“The chairman and managing director took bribes from local suppliers for allotting contracts. Bajaj worked as a middleman and he collected bribes from clients while his wife and Chandni turned the bribe money into gold bricks,” the CBI lawyer told the court, seeking custody of the four for seven days.

Srivastava folded his hands and appealed for bail, promising he would co-operate with the probe.

The four were brought to the court in two cars by the CBI in the afternoon. Chandni and Anita started crying as soon as two women constables took them inside.

“Please do not cry. It’s a court. Nothing will happen,” Srivastava told his wife, clasping both her hands as they stood in the witness box.

Bhushan Lal stood behind them with Anita, who too was sobbing. “Mummy don’t cry. We are with you,” said one of their two daughters, standing near the witness box.

The daughters closed their eyes in prayer once proceedings began. After the four were sent to custody, the daughter tried to console Anita saying: “Don’t worry. You should think that you have got five days break from work.” The couple also have a son who is abroad.

Noticing journalists, Anita asked: “How have they been allowed inside? Our image has been tarnished and I am more worried about that.”

The Srivastavas have a daughter who works in Noida and a son.