Congress Alleges Illegal Exchange of Currency, MoD Rejects Claim

Congress alleges that govt officials were allegedly involved in illegal exchange of old notes after demonetisation.

(Photo: The Quint)

Hours after senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday, 9 April, alleged that senior officials of the government were involved in a scam that helped business houses exchange old currency notes at a certain rate, Ministry of Defence refuted the claim.

According to Hindustan Times, a Defence Ministry Spokesperson said, “It is categorically refuted that any Indian Air Force aircraft was tasked to fly abroad for carrying currency prior to, during or after demonetisation as alleged in a video released today.”

Sibal had alleged that duplicate currency notes which were printed abroad and were brought to India in Air Force Transport planes at Hindon Air Force base.

In the beginning of the press conference, which lasted for about 42 minutes, Sibal said, “It’s unfortunate that the probe agencies of this country are investigating the opposition leaders and would spare sitting cabinet ministers at the Centre. It’s now up to people to save democracy.”

Journalists were shown a couple of video clips beginning from April 2017 in which senior officials have explained how the process of currency exchange worked following the announcement of demonetisation by Prime Minister Modi on 8 November 2016.

Govt Official Involved in ‘Illegal’ Exchange of Old Currency

According to Sibal, the first video clip, dated 26 April 2017, features a field assistant at the cabinet secretariat who allegedly “explains the procedure of doing currency exchange”.

The video was recorded when the said government official had visited Hotel Trident in Mumbai on 4 April 2017.

Sibal read out the transcript of the video and narrated the summary of video as:

“He said that three series of one lakh crore each have been printed in duplicate. He explains in detail how the duplicate currency notes which were printed abroad were brought to India in Air Force Transport planes at Hindon Air Force base.”

Kapil Sibal, at the press conference

Sibal has further alleged that this official in cabinet secretariat “names Amit Shah twice and explains in detail how the exchange transaction percentages have increased from 15 percent initially to now 35-40 percent”.

In a press release issued later, the Congress has termed demonetisation as the “biggest scam in the history of India”.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)