The Supreme Court has asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to look into a petition seeking a court-monitored CBI investigation into alleged RBI exchange of currency notes worth ₹30 crore believed to have been stamped with separatist slogans on them.
Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde on Tuesday, the petitioner-in-person, Satish Bhardwaj, said a ‘separatist group’ called Kashmir Graffiti made a statement on social media networking site Facebook that they stamped the currency notes with slogans in August 2013.
Mr. Bhardwaj said that to his best knowledge and according to media reports, the notes were “defaced” with “seditious and anti-India” slogans. The group had even posted a video of it on YouTube, Mr. Bhardwaj claimed.
He said the currency notes were exchanged at the Jammu branch of the RBI.
“This is a matter of national interest,” Chief Justice Bobde addressed Mr. Mehta, who was specially summoned for the case.
When the court asked whether it should issue a formal notice in the matter, Mr. Mehta said he would first look into the allegations made by Mr. Bhardwaj in the petition.
Mr. Bhardwaj said he had been filing RTI applications with the Reserve Bank of India for clarity on the alleged exchange, but the central banker had been “vague” in its replies.
