‘Rajasthan man buys, worships banned notes to improve luck on tantric’s advice’: Police

A man arrested by Rajasthan’s Nagaur police with demonetised currency notes revealed during interrogation that a tantric had told him that his financial condition will improve if he worships the banned notes before selling them, officials said on Thursday.

Hanuman Singh, 35, was arrested with demonetised notes of Rs 5.20 lakh under section 151 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), said Devi Lal Bishnoi, station house officer of Kuchera police station in Nagaur.

“Acting on a tip-off, Singh, a native of Huanumagarh district, was arrested with banned notes of Rs 5.20 lakh, all with face value of Rs 500, on Tuesday night. During questioning, Singh confessed that he had purchased the old currency from a man, Nain Singh Rajpurohit, on Tuesday morning by paying him Rs 1 lakh,” said a police official from Nagaur who didn’t want to be named.

The accused told the police that Rajpurohit was also under financial crisis since the demonetisation announced in 2016. “Prima facie investigation reveals that the banned currency was unaccounted that’s why Rajpuorhit had possessed them. After buying the banned notes, the accused was planning to sell them to his relatives in Punjab at Rs 1.50 lakh,” the official said.

“Before selling them to relatives at Rs 1.50 lakh, Singh, on the advice of a tantric, was supposed to worship the old notes, so that his financial condition improves. For that Singh had come to a holy place in Nagaur,” the police official added.

The tantric had duped Singh worth thousands by telling him that his planetary movements will only change if he worships the banned currencies.

“We have informed the Reserve Bank of India, income tax department and other agencies about the recovery of old notes. They have started a probe,” Bishnoi said.

The central government had rendered Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes invalid on the midnight of November 8-9 in 2016. The government called the decision a crackdown on black money, terror financing and counterfeit currency.