Five held after police finds ₹4 crore cash in hotel room

Police said a Delhi-based jeweller was camping in the hotel to convert his black money to white with the help of his associate from Kerala. The cash was handed over to the income tax department.

The crime investigation unit (CIA) of Gurugram police on Tuesday arrested five men who were found ₹4 crores cash in a five star hotel room on the Delhi-Gurugram border.

According to police, five persons were present in the room at the time of raid – owner of a popular chain of jewellery shops, three of his employees and one person from Kerala who had come to visit him in the hotel. (HT Archives. Representative image)

Police said a Delhi-based jeweller was camping in the hotel to convert his black money to white with the help of his associate from Kerala. The cash was handed over to the income tax department.

Gurugram police said they received information about a large cache of fake currency being moved in the city. After following the trail for a few days, police received specific inputs about a possible transaction of fake currency at a city hotel.

Acting on the information, police raided the hotel room and found five persons with two plastic gunny bags full of currency in denomination of ₹500 and ₹2000. Police found all notes to be genuine. Police immediately alerted the income tax department and a team from there arrived at the hotel to seize the cash.

“We had a lead about fake currency racket but turned out to be something different. We seized the items and handed them over to the income tax department,” said assistant commissioner of police (crime) Preet Pal Sangwan, adding that the case was handed over to the IT department.

According to police, five persons were present in the room at the time of raid – owner of a popular chain of jewellery shops, three of his employees and one person from Kerala who had come to visit him in the hotel.

“The jeweller was in Gurugram to strike a deal to convert his black money into white. The person from Kerala was supposed to help the jeweller in all these,” said the officer. The jeweller, according to police, claimed that the cash was related to his jewellery business.

Income Tax department officials said they are investigating the case and appropriate action would be taken as per the prescribed law.