Chennai: Strange are the ways of CBI probe.
It has arrested two persons for depositing large quantity of demonetised bank notes in the bank. However, it has forget to question the bank officials even though a year has been passed since the arrests.
Pointing the lapses on the part of country’s premier investigating agency, the Madras high court has sought to know “why did it not probe bank officials, when its case was that a large quantity of demonetised bank notes was changed with their help by Sekhar Reddy and two others, arrested on charges of money laundering last year”.
The court, while hearing a plea by Reddy and two other accused seeking quashing of the case against them, has sought the reply from the CBI.
Reddy has pointed out in his petition that no one other than the three main accused persons were questioned or arrested by the CBI even though 10 months had expired since the case was filed.
The Income Tax department in December last year had unearthed Rs 99 crore in demonetised bank notes and another Rs 34 crore in the new currencies, besides a 127-kg gold bar, from properties owned by Reddy and his associates–K Srinivaslu and Premkumar. The three were arrested by the CBI. The Enforcement Directorate also booked the three under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
High court justice G Jayachandran directed the CBI to file a status report, explaining the details of inquiries conducted and arrests made since the registration of the case, by October 25 and posted the matter to November 6 for further hearing.
