New Delhi: After the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate, the government has unleashed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to crack down on accounts that have seen large deposits post the demonetisation announcement of November 8.
News18 learns that the agency has already formed a task force under Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Arun Sharma to lead the effort a few days ago. Sharma’s team will also take up complaints received from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The agency has so far registered nine FIRs as part of its investigation.
Sharma, a joint director level officer, is currently the head of CBI’s Banking Securities & Finance Cell. He declined to comment for this story.
The crackdown against money laundering has already has seen some high-value seizures, especially in Chennai and Bengaluru.
There have been reports that despite the sudden ban on high-value bank notes, money laundering networks are thriving in the country, which clandestinely help those stuck with piles of old currency to convert them to legal tender.
Probe agencies suspect that a major source of this laundering was the Jan Dhan accounts, which have suddenly shown big deposits coming in in what used to be zero-balance accounts essentially opened to bring in more and more people to the formal banking sector.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself warned that those using the Jan Dhan accounts to launder their money will not be spared.
Bloomberg had reported that agents offering to launder money were using creative means, including flying banned cash by the planeload to northeastern states exempt from restrictions as well as connecting people to high-turnover businesses that can deem old cash as revenue, keep a portion of it, and return the rest. Premiums range from 10% to 50%, depending on the difficulty, the report said, adding that at least one property brokerage was offering to arrange the sale of apartments using banned money in an upscale suburb of Mumbai that’s popular with Bollywood movie stars.
With the CBI, which has sweeping powers and cutting-edge investigative expertise, getting into the act, sources said a new wave of raids and arrests from across the country could be expected.
Apart from the illegal conversion of old notes, there have been seizures of unaccounted wealth kept as gold bullions too from parts of the country besides stacks of cash running into crores in new denomination Rs 2000-note discovered from apartments, even cars.
The government is already investigating at least 50 bank branches on suspicion of money laundering.
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