CBI books Canara Bank official for illegally exchanging demonetised notes

RBI had come out with stringent guidelines for exchanging these notes with new ones

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a Canara Bank branch manager for allegedly exchanging demonetised old currency notes worth over Rs 14 lakh in violation of norms.

After demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year, the Reserve Bank of India had come out with stringent guidelines for exchanging these notes with new ones.

The demonetised notes with an aggregate value of Rs 4,000 or less were being exchanged by the banks with notes having legal tender character.

The officials were required to obtain a requisition slip in the specified format along with proof of identity from the person exchanging the amount.

"Information revealed that during the period from November 10, 2016 to November 26, 2016, an amount of Rs. 14.17 lakh was exchanged by Ashok Vyas at his branch regarding which neither the desired documents were collected nor entry has been made in the SAS (Statistical Analysis System) system," the FIR alleged.

The CBI has registered a case of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and corruption against Vyas, the then branch manager at Canara Bank, Pali in Rajasthan.

"Vyas mischievously opened double lock safe and almirah by using both set of keys and took out the amount in custody without making entries in the double lock register and exchanged amount with SBN's (demonetised notes) without taking any documents which is against the bank guidelines and thereby committed criminal breach of trust," the CBI has alleged.