Congress rakes up demonetisation to corner BJP

New Delhi : Hitting out the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the demonetisation drive in 2016, the Congress on Friday said that the move was the biggest scam the country had seen since independence.

Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala stated that an RTI reply had revealed BJP-linked banks receiving huge amounts of money, days after the implementation of the demonetisation drive."Within a mere five days of the implementation of the demonetisation drive, old denominations worth Rs 3118 crore were deposited in 11 district corporative banks that had links to BJP leaders. The most noteworthy of them was Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose directors include BJP president Amit Shah," Surjewala said.

He further said that the bank, which is chaired by Ajay Patel, a close associate of Shah, received 745.58 crore from November 10 to November 14."The Rajkot District Cooperative Bank was the other noteworthy inclusion, receiving old denominations worth Rs 693 crore within five days. It is chaired by Jayeshbhai Vitthalbhai Radadiya, a cabinet minister in the Gujarat government," Surjewala said.

He further revealed that the RTI reply had suggested that the demonetisation scheme was meant to benefit a 'select group of BJP cronies'."The states ruled by the BJP or it's allies received the highest proportion of deposits in district corporative banks," Surjewala said.

On November 8, 2016, the BJP-led Centre had invalidated Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes, claiming it was a crackdown on the shadow economy and use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activities and terrorism.