The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested K.C. Veerendra, a businessman and politician from Challakere, Chitradurga district, in whose house IT sleuths discovered secret cash vaults in the bathroom recently.
The officials had recovered over Rs. 5 crore in new currency, apart from bullion.
With this new case that the CBI has registered, more banks have come under the scanner for fraudulently diverting new currency to private individuals.
The FIR names four banks — State Bank of India, State Bank of Mysore, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and ICICI Bank.
The FIR, which also names two middlemen and agents, reportedly does not name individual officers of these banks or the modus operandi deployed to divert funds.
The CBI earlier registered three cases naming Central Bank of India, Karnataka Bank, and Dhanalaxmi Bank for similar diversion of funds, where documents were falsified to claim exchange of notes, misuse of Demand Drafts, and diversion of money meant for ATMs.
IT sleuths conducted search operations at Challakere and Hubballi recently based on leads that they found during raids conducted in Goa on a nexus of cricket betting ring and casinos. Mr. Veerendra, son-in-law of a popular Kannada actor, was also involved in running the ring and exchanging old currency for bullion.
