In what could be the tip of the iceberg, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked three employees of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, including a branch manager, on charges of depositing the demonetised ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes in the corporation’s account.
The allegation is that the suspects collected low denomination notes ranging between ₹5 and ₹100 from passengers towards the cost of tickets but deposited the high value notes in the TNSTC bank account. Acting on a tip-off that a huge quantity of demonetised currency was deposited in the official account of the corporation as if they were collected from members of the public, the DVAC launched an investigation.
Investigation revealed that during November 14-18, 2016, the manager of Dindigul branch (TNSTC - Madurai Division) Balusamy deposited ₹20,80,000 in ₹500 and ₹1,000 denomination notes in Canara Bank.
While bus conductors collected cash ranging between ₹5 and ₹100 from passengers and deposited ₹25,46,520 to the branch manager, he replaced most of the money with the demonetised notes.
The two others named as accused were K. Alagesan, senior grade conductor, and S. Vellaichamy, senior superintendent in the accounts department, who allegedly facilitated the commission of the offence.
The DVAC, in its First Information Report, said that the Ministry of Finance issued a notification on November 8, 2016, declaring that ₹500 and ₹1,000 denomination notes would cease to exist as legal tender and certain exemptions for the convenience of the public in certain transactions.
However, the establishments that were authorised to receive the demonetised currency as legal tender were told to maintain complete account of record of such transactions.
The TNSTC was one of the organisations that was given exemption and conductors were authorised to collect demonetised currency from passengers towards the ticket, for a specified period.
False entries
The accused forged vouchers and statements to make false entries in the account book and thereby cheated the State exchequer during the five-day period. Besides invoking the provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against the accused, the agency booked them on charges of forgery, cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Asked if the DVAC would also probe allegations of similar frauds in other organisations that were authorised to accept demonetised currency as legal tender in the list-demonetisation scenario, an investigator said that the case against the TNSTC staff was based on a specific input given by K. Parasuraman, general secretary, Dindigul Panjaalai Marumalrchi Thozhilalar Munnani.
“If there is any complaint or specific input regarding exchange of demonetised currency against low denomination cash received from public in government organisations, we will take appropriate action,” the official said adding that there was record for every deposit or transaction made using demonetised notes in banks or other financial institutions and it was not easy to tamper with such evidence.