Ever since the Demonetisation decision was announced on Nov 8, stashes of money kept under wraps were unearthed either to deposit or exchange the scrapped notes with the legal tender. People have deposited their money in chunks from the 10th November, the day on which banks opened first after the announcement.
Interestingly, on Wednesday, a surprise inspection was done by CBI at Malabar District Co-operative Bank (MDCB) in Malappuram. Post the inspection, it was found that the bank had received deposits of demonetized currency notes worth a whopping Rs. 169 crore during the first five days after the decision was made.
As much as Rs.169 crore were deposited from Nov 10 to Nov 14. The whole deposit amount is an aggregate figure of what was deposited at 54 branches and 296 cooperative societies including 140 co-operative banks, which are MDCB-operated.
The branches deposited a total of Rs 84 crore and societies deposited currency amounting to Rs 85 crore in the bank during the five days.
Reportedly, CBI has asked the banks to furnish required documents related to all the depositors. However, the bank officials are already highly reluctant to record the KYC details of depositors owing to the baffling guidelines of RBI.
Reportedly, CBI is running errands from one bank to another to spot and mitigate any illegal activity, which might be happening at any of the bank branches.
The main reason behind conducting the investigation was to check and confirm that district cooperative banks are not used to launder black money.
“It is not our responsibility to check the source of the money deposited by each person in bank branches. But, as we followed KYC norms, we can share the details of customers with the investigation agency,” said Pradeep Menon, vice-president of MDCB.
On being questioned by the CBI, the official said that no money-laundering activities are taking place in this branch and also affirmed the agency that all the KYC guidelines have been followed.
