New Delhi: Alleging that Union finance minister Piyush Goyal had forced Nabard to issue a statement to hide the demonetisation scam by the BJP, the Congress on Saturday demanded a thorough investigation into the matter.

“Piyush Goyal forced Nabard to issue a press statement, which far from addressing the core issue of the allegation looked like a BJP statement embedded on Nabard’s website, since it only sought to defend Amit Shah,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told the media here.

Mr Khera further accused Nabard of deliberately omitting its own RTI findings which reflected that a whopping Rs 3,118.51 crore worth of old notes were deposited within five days of the Prime Minister announcing demonetisation in 11 Gujarat co-operative banks closely associated with BJP leaders.

“District co-operative banks in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states and its allies ruled states had received a massive 64.18 per cent, i.e Rs 22,270.80 crore of the entire amount deposited in these banks in just five days,” he said.

“It would be pertinent for the Modi government to answer our simple questions and order a thorough investigation in the spike of demonetised note deposits in the district co-operative banks,” he added.