The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe into a case over coins worth Rs 11 crore missing from the State Bank of India’s (SBI's) Mehendipur Balaji branch near Jaipur, reported news agency PTI.
This came after an order from the Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday, 19 April. The case relates to the discovery that dates back to August 2021 and the initial FIR had been lodged by the Rajasthan Police on 16 August, under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent, etc) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
The CBI filed a First Information Report (FIR) on Wednesday, 13 April, for criminal conspiracy, cheating, and criminal breach of trust in connection with the case, The Print reported.
The SBI had earlier approached the HC seeking a CBI probe after a preliminary enquiry indicated a discrepancy of over Rs 3 crore, the benchmark required for an investigation by the agency.
What Happened?
According to a report by The Print, the bank had hired a private agency called Arpit Goods Carrier to count coins worth Rs 13,01,71,275 in July 2021.
However, the agency said that on 10 August, almost a dozen armed men threatened those who were involved in the counting. Till the time of the FIR, the agency had counted 2,350 bags of coins worth Rs 1,39,60,000 crore and another 600-700 bags with an estimated Rs 60,00,000 lakh were yet to be counted.
The vendor had already suspected a discrepancy, as the bank should have had coins worth Rs 13,01,71,275 at the time, The Print reported.
The counting showed that over Rs 11 crore worth of coins were missing from the branch.
(With inputs from PTI and The Print.)
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