More than 60 suspicious bank transactions identified

Officials are studying the roles of the firms, corporates and individuals who transferred the funds electronically

The district election office has identified suspicious transactions in the bank accounts of political parties.

“A total of 64 suspicious bank transactions have been identified. Income tax officials are examining them. As many as 16 of the transactions were made on political party accounts,” said an election official.

“A total of 12 transactions of the Communist Party of India, one transaction of the DMK charitable trust and two transactions of DMK candidate R. Girirajan have been handed over by banks to the Chennai district election office,” said the official.

Transactions under the scanner include a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) of Rs. 50 lakh made on April 8 at the Kilpauk branch of Andhra Bank, a national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) of Rs. 26 lakh from Indian Overseas Bank, and a deposit of Rs. 16 lakh at Indian Bank.

Officials are studying the roles of the firms, corporates and individuals who transferred the funds electronically to the accounts.

The district election office had asked more than 1,300 bank branches to report transactions involving sums over Rs. 1 lakh, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Unusual withdrawals and deposits of cash exceeding Rs. 1 lakh, without any such instance of deposit or withdrawal in the past two months, will continue to be reported by banks.

The election office has also asked banks to track transfer of money to 1,700 accounts of self-help groups (SHGs) in the city.

Lead bank managers of Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra Bank and Canara Bank have screened SHG accounts for unusual money transfer.

“We are yet to find suspicious transactions in the accounts of SHGs,” said the official.