Rs 570 crore 'seized' ahead of Tamil Nadu poll, but it turns out to be SBI's cash

CHENNAI: A surveillance team of the Election Commission detained three container trucks carrying Rs 570 crore in Tiruppur early on Saturday, creating a flutter in Tamil Nadu where the poll watchdog is fighting a 'cash-for-vote' culture.

By Saturday evening, however, the 'mother of all cash seizures' turned out to be an anti-climax with the State Bank of India saying that it was transporting currency notes, on instructions from the Reserve Bank of India, from a chest in Coimbatore to Visakhapatnam.

Since the assembly election was notified on March 4, the EC has seized more than Rs 100 crore from different parts of the state.

In the wee hours of Saturday, an EC team inter- cepted three trucks, escorted by plainclothes policemen from Andhra Pradesh in four cars, on the Perumanallur-Kunnathur Road. Though the trucks had papers issued by the SBI's Coimbatore main branch, the registration number of one of the trucks did not match the numbers mentioned in the documents.

"They seized all the trucks and brought them to the collectorate," said Tiruppur collector S Jayanthi. CRPF personnel are guarding the cash-laden trucks at the collectorate.

The air cleared in the evening when the SBI came out with a statement that the money was being moved on the instruction of the RBI as there was a temporary cash shortage in AP.

"We reiterate this movement of currency is duly authorised by RBI ... The movement is in line with RBI's currency management policy of moving cash from one currency chest to another where cash is needed," the SBI statement said.

Interestingly, the cash seizure has happened at a time when there is an unusual surge in currency with public. According to data released by the RBI, cash with the public grew by 48% in the last fiscal till March 18, adding over Rs 2 lakh crore to currency in circulation.

In the week ended May 6, currency with public rose by Rs 17,720 crore as more money was withdrawn from banks. Neither bankers, nor economists or even the central bank is able to pro- vide a convincing explanation for the increase.

In April, SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said that the bank was seeing an unusual demand for currency with high de- nomination notes being withdrawn from ATMs but not coming back into the banking system.
The SBI chief had asked the central bank to look into the issue. In his April policy, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan hinted at elections being the reason. "We have seen some possibility that, around election time, cash with public increases. You can guess the reason why. We can also guess," Rajan had said.