The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against the secretaries of six service cooperative banks in Kollam district that allegedly received deposits of more than ₹50,000 in the post-demonetisation period.
Case has been registered against P. Ashokan, secretary, Kadakkal Service Cooperative Bank; Appukuttan Pillai, secretary, Puthiyakavu Cooperative Bank; Girija Kumari M., secretary, Mayyanad Service Cooperative Bank; Emily Daniel, secretary, Panmana Service Cooperative Bank; J. Sivan Pillai, secretary, Kulasekharapuram Service Cooperative Bank; and Sankara S. Nampoothiri, secretary, Chathannur Service Cooperative Bank.
A First Information Report submitted by the CBI at a special court in Thiruvananthapuram stated that these banks fraudulently accepted demonetised notes valued at ₹57,49,500 from customers and deposited them with the District Cooperative Bank, Kollam. Though the RBI had restricted transaction of more than ₹50,000, these banks let some of their customers deposit more than ₹50,000.
The Panmana Service Cooperative Bank was involved in 68 transactions to the tune of ₹30 lakh while the Kulasekharapuram Service Cooperative Bank accepted deposits of ₹13.24 lakh from 10 persons. Similarly, the Kadakkal Service Cooperative Bank accepted ₹6.01 lakh from five persons and the Puthiyakavu Service Cooperative Bank accepted ₹2.90 lakh from one person. The Mayyanad Service Cooperative Bank accepted ₹1.82 lakh from one person. The Chathannur Service Cooperative Bank accepted notes worth ₹3.52 lakh from two persons.
A probe by the CBI showed that the Kollam District Cooperative Bank received demonetised currency to the tune of ₹230 crore from customers, including these banks, between November 8 and November 15, 2016. The money was later transferred to nationalised and private banks with branches in Kollam.
