State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday said police and tax authorities have released the Rs 570 crore seized during the transfer of the money last week. Authorities had reportedly seized the money while the fund was being transported by road, as they mistook it as illegal money to be used to lure voters during the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
The SBI management said in order to address a temporary cash shortage in Andhra Pradesh, the Reserve Bank, as per its currency management policy, had authorised transfer of Rs 570 crore from currency chest at SBI Coimbatore main branch to SBI special currency administration branch in Visakhapatnam.
As per RBI instructions, the Coimbatore main branch had released the money to the authorised SBI personnel duly escorted by a team of police personnel from Andhra Pradesh. The convoy carrying the treasure was stopped en route and brought to the Tiruppur collectorate for further scrutiny.
“Reference the recent incident involving the mistaken seizure of Rs 570 crore that was being transported from the currency chest of State Bank of India’s Coimbatore main branch to SBI special currency administration branch, Visakhapatnam, SBI would like to confirm that the same has been duly released by the police and tax authorities after all verifications were made,” the lender said on Wednesday.
Both the police escort team and the representative from SBI had presented all the necessary identification and documents whenever demanded by the SST officials during the entire process of verification.
