A team of senior I-T officials at the Department’s State headquarters here today interrogated T.M. Ramalingam, from whom over Rs 26,000 crore ($5 billion) worth US Government treasury bonds were recovered a couple of days ago.

“The investigation is still on, and it is way too premature to say anything concrete now,” said a senior official in the Department.

Ramalingam, who was brought here today from Dharapuram (in Tirupur) for investigation, was said to have been accompanied by his lawyers.

The I-T official, with whom Business Line spoke to, said that the Department has not yet ruled out the possibility of the documents not being genuine.

Earlier, though Ramalingam, during his media interactions, claimed that he had applied for establishing an oil refinery at Thondi in Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu. The District Collector there had denied it saying no one had approached the administration with a proposal for such a project.

Besides, according to sources in Coimbatore, Ramalingam does not possess any technical qualification to venture into an activity that would require specialised skills. He has studied up to class 10. It is also not clear whether he has gathered a team of professionals who would take his dream project forward or whether the finances for a huge refinery project has been tied-up.

The I-T Department was tipped off by officials of a Barclays Bank branch, where he had gone to liquidate the treasury bonds.

> ravikumar.ramanujam@thehindu.co.in

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