Justice R Subbaiah of the Madras High Court on Wednesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the May 13 seizure of Rs 570 crore from three container trucks in Tirupur District of Tamil Nadu.
The seizure of the large amount of money by one of the flying squads pressed into service by the Election Commission of India (ECI) three days ahead of the May 16 Assembly election had generated a lot of controversy all over the State, with some of the political parties making allegations and counter-allegations about the ownership of the money.
T K S Elangovan, the official spokesman of the DMK had approached the Madras High Court with a petition pleading for a CBI probe into the seizure of the money in the run-up to the election. The State Bank of India, had claimed that the entire money belonged to it and was being transferred from Tamil Nadu to Visakhapattinam in Andhra Pradesh as the bank branches there had reported a shortage of funds.
But Elangovan's contention was that the trucks/containers which carried the currency notes had fake registration numbers and the currency bundles had Axis Bank seals, though it was claimed that it belonged to the SBI. The seizure of the money took place following the failure of the drivers and the accompanying cops to stop the vehicles, when the flying squad asked then to stop for verification.
The DMK spokesman had also alleged that the officials had conspired and created fake documents to claim that the money belonged to the SBI. Justice Subbaiah asked the CBI to hold the preliminary probe soon and register a case if any cognizable offence was made out.
During the hearing the Reserve Bank of India has submitted that the transfer was part of routine money movement under currency management function and that it had given its approval to SBI for the same. But there were many unanswered questions like why the trucks bore fake registration numbers, why the protocol associated with shifting of currency chests were not followed and why the officials accompanying the vehicles furnished fake papers to the flying squad of the ECI.