Taking a serious note of Union Bank of India (UBI) not reporting high-value transactions to it, the government has asked the state-owned bank to immediately carry out an audit of all its branches to check for such large deposits that have gone unreported.
The Income Tax department, during a probe into alleged money laundering by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, had stumbled on a bank account at one of UBI's branches in Zaveri Bazar in Mumbai where approximately Rs 214 crore had been deposited in cash between January five and March 30, 2007.
The bank, whose Chairman has been summoned by the Income Tax department in the Koda probe, has now been asked for an audit of all accounts of Union Bank of India, suspecting that the bank's branches throughout the country may not be following the norms.
"Not taking cognizance of transactions of such serious nature by you and non reporting (of these) could have serious implications for the country. It is likely that your branches all over the country might be having many more such accounts with whopping cash deposits therein which have gone unreported," said a letter to Union Bank of India CMD MV Nair.
The Bank officials did not comment immediately.
Manoj Punamia, stakeholder in Balaji group, had earlier said that the company had no role to play in the Koda episode. However, there has been no word from the group after the Tax and ED authorities questioned him.
