The State government is in the process of handing over the investigation into the multi-crore scam at the city-based Guru Raghavendra Cooperative Bank to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the end of this month, Cooperation Minister K.N. Rajanna told the Legislative Council on Monday.
“The process of handing over the investigation will be completed this month end. Since the transcripts were in Kannada, the process of translating them to English is under progress and is expected to be completed by the month-end. Once the translation work is completed, documents will be handed to CBI,” the Minister said in response to a question from Congress member U.B. Venkatesh.
When the member pointed out that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a notice as to why the bank should not be liquidated, the Minister said, “The RBI on June 18 sent the notice. The government is against cancellation of licence of the bank or liquidating it and we will be writing to the RBI about the same.”
Meanwhile, the Congress and BJP members were involved in a spat over which government was responsible for ordering the CBI inquiry. While BJP member D.S. Arun said that the then Cooperation Minister had on January 17, 2023 announced that the case would be handed over to CBI, Mr. Venkatesh took objection and said that it was a mere statement and actual work of handing over had happened during Congress rule.
“The previous government did not come to the rescue of hapless depositors. In fact, RBI is at fault for the mess. For 15 years, it gave good rating to the bank after auditing. They did not call for expression of interest for a third party to take over the bank. Now to cover their fault, they want to liquidate,” he said.
