Within five days of demonetisation, scrapped currency bills worth Rs 3,118.51 crore were deposited in eleven Gujarat district cooperative banks linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress said today, citing an RTI reply.

“It is now officially clear that this entire exercise was the biggest scam in independent India, indulged to convert its ill-gotten ‘black money’ into ‘white’,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a statement.

अमित शाह के अहमदाबाद कोऑपरेटिव बैंक के लिए ‘नोटबंदी’ बना ‘नोटबदली’!

Old notes worth ₹3118.51Cr deposited in 5 days of DeMo in BJP controlled 11 District Co-op Banks in Guj!

₹14293.71Cr deposited in Co-op banks in BJP+ ruled states!

Will it get investigated? #ShahZyadaKhaGaya pic.twitter.com/OBF4P5wgKV

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) June 22, 2018

 Yesterday, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) published a report on the RTI information cited by the Congress. These details were obtained by the activist Manoranjan S Roy and provided by the chief general manager and appellate authority of NABARD.

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The news agency said BJP president Amit Shah was the bank’s chairman in 2000, and continues to be a director — a position he has held for several years.

Congratulations Amit Shah ji , Director, Ahmedabad Dist. Cooperative Bank, on your bank winning 1st prize in the conversion of old notes to new race. 750 Cr in 5 days!

Millions of Indians whose lives were destroyed by Demonetisation, salute your achievement. #ShahZyadaKhaGaya pic.twitter.com/rf1QaGmzxV

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 22, 2018

 NABARD said today that the deposits at the bank were in line with its size, and all KYC norms were adhered to. It saw nothing unusual in the scrapped notes deposited or exchanged between November 10 and 14 in 2016.

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“Right behind ADCB,” IANS’s report said, “is the Rajkot District Cooperative Bank, whose chairman Jayeshbhai Vitthalbhai Radadiya is a cabinet minister in Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s government. It got deposits of old currencies worth Rs 693.19 crore. Interestingly, Rajkot is the hub of Gujarat BJP politics — Prime Minister Modi was first elected from there as a legislator in 2001.”

“Incidentally, the figures of Ahmedabad-Rajkot DCCBs are much higher than the apex Gujarat State Cooperative Bank Ltd, which got deposits of a mere Rs 1.11 crore.”

IANS observed that all district cooperative banks were banned from accepting deposits of demonetised notes after November 14, 2016 — five days after the note ban — “on fears that black money would be laundered through this route”.

The Congress’s statement mentioned nine other banks (see below), including Surat District Cooperative Bank Ltd and Sabarkantha District Central Cooperative Bank Ltd.

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The party said, citing information it published in an annexure to its statement (see below), that the RTI information “reveals the important national picture, which further establishes that the entire exercise of demonetisation was meant to benefit a select group of BJP cronies…”

“…States ruled by BJP and its allies/supporters got the largest proportion of deposits in the district cooperative banks i.e Rs 14,293.71 crore out of Rs 22,270 crore (64.18 per cent), compared to non-BJP ruled states at the time of demonetisation.”

Inputs from agencies

Pages from Congress statement (Photos: Twitter/@rssurjewala)