Axis Bank raids: Delhi Court extends judicial custody of 2 employees till Dec 26

A Delhi Court on Thursday sent two officials of the Axis Bank, arrested for converting old currency of high-value denomination, to judicial custody till December 26.

Earlier on December 12, the court extended the police custody of Vineet Gupta, the manager of Axis Bank, for three more days and sent another manager, Shobit Sinha to judicial custody for 14 days. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the duo earlier this month in connection with its money laundering probe for alleged irregularities in the conversion of old currency and supply of new notes leading to black money generation. The court had earlier on December 5 sent the duo to one week remand.

The lawyer of Shobit Sinha said that they opposed the seven-day police custody, adding his client cooperated during the investigation. The Axis Bank had earlier suspended the accused officials. Both managers had allegedly taken gold bricks as bribe to convert Rs. 40 crore black money into white. One of the gold bricks was recovered from Lucknow. Money from the three bank accounts was transferred to jewellers via RTGS mode of payment to buy gold. The jewellers sold the gold at 45,000 rupees per tola whereas the market price was much lower.

Earlier in the day, on a trail of a jeweller who allegedly sold bullion worth Rs 600 crore, the Income Tax Department unearthed Rs 60 crore from the accounts of 20 shell companies in a raid at an Axis bank branch in Mumbai. In the search, Rs 60 crore was found in 20 accounts of as many shell companies, an official said, adding the IT team was scanning the records to trace the directors of these companies.