The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that there were no “international aspects” (such as money laundering) involved in the attempt to transfer Rs. 570 crore from Coimbatore to Visakhapatnam by the State Bank of India (SBI) in the run-up to the recent Assembly elections or involvement of government servants or loss to the government to warrant an investigation by the agency.
The CBI agency made the submissions before Justice R. Subbiah, who was hearing a petition filed by DMK press relations secretary T.K.S. Elangovan, seeking a CBI probe into the matter. . He alleged that the attempted transfer of money relates to interstate movement of “huge hawala money” involving two States.
The static surveillance team of the Election Commission had intercepted three containers carrying the cash in Tirupur and later the SBI had staked claim to the money in transit.
Pointing to the allegations made by the petitioner doubting the authenticity of the documents carried while transferring the cash, the CBI submitted that it expects the petitioner to put the Reserve Bank of India and the SBI as respondents to the plea to answer the allegations, as their presence would have helped the court to come to a conclusion without much loss of time.
Contending that the extraordinary powers of the courts must be used sparingly and cautiously in exceptional situations, the CBI said, “otherwise the central agency, flooded with a large number of cases and with limited resources, may find it difficult to investigate properly even serious cases.”
An Election Commission team had intercepted containers transporting cash before Assembly polls
