SBI cashier suspended; interrogated with six others

Lucknow/Siddharthnagar, Aug 5 (UNI) Police today suspended Sudhakar Tripathi, the prime accused and cashier, and arrested six others along with him for interrogation into the State Bank of India (SBI) counterfeit currency case in Siddharthnagar district.

Sudhakar was suspended, after an FIR was lodged against him, Jammer Hassan Rizvi, the Assistant General Managar of the Dumriyaganj branch of SBI told UNI today.

The cashier and six others were being drilled by the police, he added.

Mr Rizvi said the crime was unearthed a couple of days back on the basis of the information provided by some smugglers, who were nabbed recently with fake currencies in the state.

Meanwhile, the official sources hinted about the possibility of the government handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as it was realted to the country's economcy.

The RBI team was presently screening the currency in the SBI's chest, which had a total of over Rs 100 crore in cash.

The officials were on their toes and separating the fake notes from the real ones.

The team had so far sorted out counterfeit currency worth Rs 20 lakh, all in the denomination of Rs 1,000.

It was alleged that the counterfeiters checked in from Nepal, however, official sources chose not to comment over the same until a through probe is made into the matter.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that SBI's Dumriyaganj branch cashier Sudhakar Tripathi helped them replacing the real notes from the fake ones.

On July 29, STF of the Uttar Pradesh Police had held Sudhakar and seized Rs 7,21,000, including fake notes worth Rs 5,000 from his house and later requested the RBI for currency screening in the SBI branch.

Yesterday, a team of senior RBI officials reached the bank and seized counterfeit Indian currency worth Rs 20 lakh from the branch's main chest in Siddharthnagar district.

UNI JAS ATI NS2008