Barclays confirmed $5-bn international bills are bogus: I-T

The income tax (I-T) department has got verbal confirmation from Barclays Bank that the international bills, claimed to be worth $5 billion held by T M Ramalingam, are bogus.

A letter would be issued in this regard tomorrow, said a senior I-T official.

Ramalingam sticks to his stand that the bills are original.

The I-T department has asked Ramalingam to appear for a second round of enquiry.

The I-T official said the foreign tax division had approached its counterpart in the US and China (since Ramalingam claimed he held Chinese gold bonds, too) and one of the agencies confirmed the bonds were not genuine.

The official added Ramalingam had cheated a company in Singapore, assuring it he would get a loan from Indian financial institutions. This came to light when the department was trying to find the source of the Rs 2 crore found in Ramalingam’s bank accounts.

Ramalingam had also cheated a Brazilian national from whom he got these bills, the official added. “The Brazilian was also a fraud and the bills must have been printed from a local press in Brazil or some other country.”

No case was registered, though, against Ramalingam by the I-T department. The Singapore firm has also not come forward.

“We will intimate the local police. Since, in this case, there are no victims, we don’t know what action can be taken,” said the official. According to him, the drama since December 31 is nothing but Ramalingam trying to establish himself.

He recalled a similar incident a few years ago when one K Krishna Mohan from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh claimed he had won a Euro lottery worth millions, against which he borrowed Rs 15-20 crore and cheated banks.