Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee Dr. Suresh Advani, along with five others, has been booked for fraudulently transporting old currency notes worth Rs 10 crore. Advani, a resident of Mumbai, received the Padma Shri in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2012 besides having received several other awards.
"He (Advani) is accused in the overall case of fraudulently transporting the money. His exact role will come out after an investigation," a CBI spokesperson told DNA. According to CBI officials, three of the six accused were transporting the scrapped notes in a car when the police stopped them in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area.
Advani, considered to be one of the top oncologists, is associated with Aurangabad's CIIGMA Hospital and is known for Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation procedures. Besides Advani, the other five accused have been identified as — Yogesh B Shiroye, Dharam Raj Thigle, Krish, Gajanand Somnath and BM Shah.
CBI officials said that all the accused except Shiroye are officials of the Vaidyanath Cooperative Urban Bank Ltd (VCUBL), whose director is late BJP leader Gopinath Munde's daughter MP Pankaja Munde of the same party. The four of them, during interrogation, said that the money was being transported from the head office of Vaidyanath Cooperative Urban Bank in Maharashtra's Beed region. The CBI claimed that this money was being used for money laundering, DNA reported.
"Approximately Rs 15 crore was allegedly deposited with the Maharashtra State Urban Co-operative Bank and Rs 10 crore was being transported back to Beed, when they (the accused) were intercepted by the police on December 15," a CBI spokesperson said.
He added that "unknown bank officials and individuals" could also be involved in the case and also confirmed that at least 11 places were searched on Friday, including the residences and offices of the accused in Pune, Mumbai, Aurangabad, and Beed in Maharashtra.
A senior official from the concerned bank, however, claimed that the CBI was misinformed and that the Rs 10 crore was part of the Rs 25 crore that was being transported to the Ghatkopar branch to be deposited, DNA reported.
"The whole case is a result of CBI's mismanagement," the official said adding that the branch could accept only Rs 15 crore following which Rs 10 crore was to be sent to the bank's branch in Pimpri Chinchwad, after which the money would have been deposited in another co-operative bank.
Vaidyanath Urban Cooperative Bank issues statement, says "have done nothing wrong, however, will co-operate in investigation" pic.twitter.com/nGJqdY8Smd
— ANI (@ANI_news) December 24, 2016
Maharashtra Minister for Women and Child Development and Rural Development Pankaja Munde told ANI: "It's true I'm a member of Board of Directors of Vaidyanath Cooperative Urban Bank. However, the board members and I are not directly involved with the routine transactions of the bank. Also, I have been told that the bank has not done anything wrong but we will, however, co-operate in the investigation."
