The police detained two men with ₹15.40 lakh in new and existing banknotes in Maoist-affected Balaghat district on Tuesday.
The two, identified as grocery trader Amit Saware and finance company collection agent Abhishek Saraff, were nabbed from Balaghat town’s Jagpur Ghat area following a specific tip-off. Primary grilling has revealed that they were converting demonetised ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes up to ₹2 crores into new and existing currency by charging a 15% commission, Balaghat SP Amit Sanghi told Hindustan Times.
“The two were detained with a scooter bearing no registration number. Checking the vehicle led to ₹15.40 lakh, of which ₹14.50 lakh was in ₹2000 notes and the remaining was in ₹100 notes. The cash and the two-wheeler have been seized,” said Sanghi.
“We’ve informed the income tax department about the detention and seizure. A team of I-T sleuths will question them,” he said.
While the police and I-T sleuths will try and extract from the two the source of such a large amount of new currency, early investigations suggest that Saware could be using multiple current accounts in banks to extract money. A collusion of banks in rendering him the major bulk of the new currency cannot be ruled out, sources said.
With Saraff being a collection agent of a finance company, the police are zeroing in on the possibility of him helping people replacing currency by showing demonetised banknotes as collection from small investors.
{{/usCountry}}With Saraff being a collection agent of a finance company, the police are zeroing in on the possibility of him helping people replacing currency by showing demonetised banknotes as collection from small investors.
{{/usCountry}}The disclosure assumes significance as there have been intelligence inputs about three groups of left wing extremists —Malanjkhand Dalam, Tanda Dalam and Darre Khasa Dalam — trying to get demonetised banknotes replaced with new currency through middlemen and villagers.