Hot talk on 570 cr catch in Tamil Nadu

By evening, the CEO Rajesh Lakhoni said that the State Bank of India officials staked claim to the cash and a decision would be taken after due inquiry. During the early hours on Saturday, flying squads seized cash to the tune of Rs 570 crore from three containers during a check on the Perumanallur-Kunnathur bypass road in Tirupur district. 

During initial enquiries the inmates of the vehicles claimed that the consignment was an intra-bank money transfer of the State Bank of India in Coimbatore to Vishakhapatnam branches. But they could not produce necessary documents to validate their claim. 

Later, all the three containers were taken to the Tirupur collectorate and personnel of paramilitary forces were posted to guard the vehicles. 

The ‘seizure’ of such a huge amount of cash sent shock waves across Tamil Nadu and the country initially and many believed that it could be another ‘consignment’ from any one of the political parties for distribution to voters in poll-bound Tamil Nadu. 

In an immediate follow-up action, a committee comprising police, Revenue officials, Income Tax officials, poll expenditure officials and a banking committee, comprising managers of six nationalised banks in Tirupur began an inquiry into the issue. 

According to sources, neither the Coimbatore Commissioner, Coimbatore Rural Superintendent of Police or the Superintendent of Police, Tirupur, were kept in the loop by bank officials about the cash transfer by road.

It was a team led by Tirupur SP and Revenue officials, which intercepted the containers at Chengapalli on the outskirts of Coimbatore.

“Nobody had any information regarding inter-state transfer of such huge funds by the bank,” Tirupur Collector S Jayanthi, told DT Next. 

Police said three SUVs followed the containers and there were plainclothesmen inside the vehicle and some of them claimed to be personnel of Andhra Pradesh police. At the time of going to the press, the containers were not released. 

Election officials seized a sum of Rs 20 lakh from a lodge belonging to a functionary of a Dravidian party in Thanjavur. The money was allegedly stocked for circulating among the voters. 

Officials sealed the lodge and arrested the manager for his involvement. Sources said, a huge amount was stocked in a lodge near Thanjavur bus stand, owned by a political functionary from Neelagiri.