Coimbatore: Amid tight paramilitary security, the three container lorries with staggering Rs 570 crore seized near Tirupur by election squad last Friday was brought to Coimbatore on Tuesday. The money in three containers will remain under the custody of the Election Commission till the on-going inquiry is completed, a senior district official said here.
The State Bank of India claimed that the whopping Rs 570 crore was its legitimate cash being transported from its Coimbatore branch to Vishakapattinam. However, the discrepancies in the documents provided by the nationalised bank and the timing of the huge tranche of cash on the eve of the elections prompted the election officials to detain the containers at the Tirupur Collectorate for the last four days.
However, with the polling over, the Election Commission has given the
nod for taking the containers back to Coimbatore branch of the StateBank of India.
At 6.55 am on Tuesday, the containers, escorted by gun-toting paramilitary men, reached the SBI branch office near the Coimbatore collectorate. The doors of the containers were opened in front of income tax officials, Coimbatore district election observer Jothi Kailash, and bank officials.
The first container had 60 boxes of currencies while the second container had 65 boxes and the third, 70 boxes of cash in varying denominations. in it, 65 in the second lorry, and 70 boxes of cash in varying denominations.
The counting of the cash started on Tuesday morning and the documents
submitted by bank will be verified with the amount. The Coimbatore district collector and district election officer Archana Patnaik along with election observer Jothi Kailash will submit a report to the Election Commission.
“The cash will be under the control of the Election commission until further decisions on moving the containers from Coimbatore to Vishakapattinam is taken,” a senior official told the DC. Officials said that the bank had failed to follow certain rules while transporting the cash. The Tamil Nadu were not deployed for protection. Besides, the SBI staked claim of the money only 18 hours after the election officials caught the three containers at Kunnathur near Tirupur on Friday night. Curiously, the doors of the lorries were not sealed. The transport crew did not possess proper documents for transferring the cash.
The document showed by a bank official who was following the container trucks in a car, had given a wrong date of travel, the official explained.
