Note fraud: Court accepts ED chargesheet

NEW DELHI : A Delhi court on Saturday took cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet filed against two bank officials and another person in a case of alleged irregularities related to conversion of old currency and supply of new notes.

The agency named Vineet Gupta, then branch manager in Axis Bank’s Kashmere Gate branch, Shobhit Sinha, then manager (operations) in the bank, who with “active connivance” of a private person Rajeev S Kushwaha deposited “huge amounts of demonetised currency to the tune of ₹40 crore of various firms and companies run by Kushwaha for a huge commission and converted it into monetised form like RTGS transfers and gold.”

The case was first detected by Delhi Police after it intercepted three persons with about ₹3.7 crore cash in old notes in front of the Axis Bank branch in November last year. The ED took cognisance of the FIR and slapped money laundering charges.

The court listed the matter for April 1 for scrutiny of papers.

The ED has claimed Kushwaha “used the identity documents of various persons to form shell companies” through which cash deposits of ₹39 crore were made between November 10 and November 22 in “connivance” with the two bank managers.

The two bankers were allegedly taking commission against the amount deposited and had agreed to take commission in the form of gold bars worth ₹39 lakh.

Axis Bank had said, “The bank is committed to following highest standards of corporate governance and has zero tolerance towards any deviation on the part of any of its employees from the set model code of conduct. In this particular case, the bank has suspended the erring employee and is cooperating with the investigating agencies.”