FIR against SBI’s Banda branch: Bank failed to detect exchange of fake notes with face value Rs 4 lakh, says RBI

“The RBI has sent us these fake notes and got an FIR registered against the SBI Banda staff,” said a senior police officer. Express Photo by Pradip Das.

The RBI on Wednesday got an FIR lodged against the State Bank of India’s (SBI) Banda branch for failing to detect the exchange of fake notes with a face value of Rs 3.9 lakh for new ones after demonetisation.

It returned the fake Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to the district police headquarters on Wednesday, after it finished counting old notes that were turned in after the note ban was enforced on November 8 last year.

A senior police officer said, “The RBI-Kanpur found fake old currency notes with a face value of Rs 3.9 lakh sent from the Banda district’s SBI office. Its machines were counting demonetised notes sent by various banks when these fake notes were detected.”

“The RBI has sent us these fake notes and got an FIR registered against the SBI Banda staff. The crime branch is now investigating the case and will check who were the senior staffers manning operations last year during demonetisation,” the officer added.

The FIR was registered under IPC sections 489 A, B, C, D and E — counterfeiting currency notes or bank notes, using as genuine forged currency notes or bank notes, possession of currency notes or bank notes, possession of instruments or material for forging currency notes or bank notes and making or using documents resembling currency notes or bank notes.