CBI files closure report in Rs. 570 cr. cash transfer case
Procedural flaws established but no criminality made out, says official
The
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a closure report in the
Madras High Court in a case pertaining to the transfer of Rs. 570 crore
from Coimbatore to Visakhapatnam by the State Bank of India (SBI) in
the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections.
Surveillance teams of the Election Commission had seized three container lorries transporting Rs. 570 crore in cash ahead of the elections. Even as the election and bank authorities clarified that the consignment belonged to the SBI, political parties alleged that the money was meant for distribution to voters.
Amid allegations that the cash could be ‘hawala’ money that were being transferred using vehicles with fake registration numbers, forged documents and bogus permission letters from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the court ordered a probe by the CBI on July 4, 2016. “After a thorough investigation during the preliminary enquiry, we have filed a closure report in the Madras High Court. Besides perusing documents collected from the RBI, SBI, EC and the Income Tax department, we examined a number of official and private witnesses. Though some procedural lapses were established, there was no criminality…,” a senior CBI official told The Hindu on Tuesday. Confirming that the money belonged to the SBI, the official parried questions on why such huge consignment of cash was transported by road in the middle of the night and the claims that vehicles with fake registration numbers were used. The container lorries were escorted by armed police as per procedure, he added.
Besides perusing documents collected from RBI, SBI, EC and I-T department, various witnesses were examinedCBI official
Surveillance teams of the Election Commission had seized three container lorries transporting Rs. 570 crore in cash ahead of the elections. Even as the election and bank authorities clarified that the consignment belonged to the SBI, political parties alleged that the money was meant for distribution to voters.
Amid allegations that the cash could be ‘hawala’ money that were being transferred using vehicles with fake registration numbers, forged documents and bogus permission letters from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the court ordered a probe by the CBI on July 4, 2016. “After a thorough investigation during the preliminary enquiry, we have filed a closure report in the Madras High Court. Besides perusing documents collected from the RBI, SBI, EC and the Income Tax department, we examined a number of official and private witnesses. Though some procedural lapses were established, there was no criminality…,” a senior CBI official told The Hindu on Tuesday. Confirming that the money belonged to the SBI, the official parried questions on why such huge consignment of cash was transported by road in the middle of the night and the claims that vehicles with fake registration numbers were used. The container lorries were escorted by armed police as per procedure, he added.
Besides perusing documents collected from RBI, SBI, EC and I-T department, various witnesses were examinedCBI official
No comments:
Post a Comment