Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued fresh notification to all its units on steps to be taken regarding exchange and deposit of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes seized during raids, traps and other probes.
As per the notification, notes whose serial number or identity is irrelevant to the investigation should be deposited in CBI bank accounts. While remaining notes will be allowed to be exchanged at specified RBI counters even beyond December 30. The CBI, along with RBI, has created special counters at 19 RBI offices for the same.
The notification, a copy of which is with The Asian Age, was issued on December 16 and states that if funds of over Rs 2 lakh are collected by units including the anti-corruption wing of the CBI, investigators should approach the chief general manager, department of currency management. “We have already started depositing currency notes which don’t hold evidentiary value in court, in banks where CBI officially holds accounts. The notice pertains to currency notes which need to be produced in court after December 30,” a source said.
Regarding this, the notification states, “In cases where notes have to be produced in court as evidence, they may be kept in CBI branch custody pending disposal of cases by courts beyond December 30, 2016. An officer with the anti-corruption wing of the CBI explained that during the traps laid down to nab a person accepting bribes, investigators sometimes used notes with specific serial numbers so as to make them possess more evidentiary value in court cases.
“These notes which have been seized and are in old denominations will now be deposited at CBI branches till court hearing. If the court hearing goes beyond December 30, then we have been allotted special counters at RBI regional centres to get the notes deposited or exchanged,” the source explained. RBI had created counters at 19 regional centres which included major metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru etc., the source added.
