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SC issues notice on Swamy’s plea to probe RBI officials in financial scams

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a plea filed by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking a CBI probe into the role of Reserve Bank of India officials in various banking scams.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna issued a notice to the CBI and the RBI on Swamy’s plea.

Swamy contended that his prayer is that the CBI or any authority, which this court decides should investigate, and the investigation should include all directors who were there in the process of allocating the loans.

The bench queried unless the CBI finds any specific role played by an individual person, could the court direct an investigation?

Swamy submitted that they are nominee directors, and not ordinary persons. He added that the person is an appointee of the RBI, and he heads a committee on the risk element, and it is clear that he is a full-fledged member of the Board of Directors.

He said not investigating RBI officials in the same manner as other directors is a violation of Article 14. As the bench asked: “What is the stage of investigation with regard to other directors?”, Swamy said that in the last ten years, none of them have come to a conclusion.

After hearing arguments, the bench “We will consider. Issue notice.”

The plea filed by Swamy alleged that the involvement of RBI officials in scams involving various entities – Kingfisher, Yes Bank etc — has not been probed, and RBI officials had allegedly escaped scrutiny with respect to their involvement.

The plea argued that despite playing a key role in the bank’s allocation of funds to various projects, the Reserve Bank nominees have not been touched by CBI enquiries.

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