The Banashankari police arrested three men who were attempting to sell demonetised currency and seized Rs 88 lakh in demonetised Rs 500 notes from them.
On December 28, around 12.30 am, police constables Prashanth and Rajanna from the Banashankari police station observed a Honda City car (registration number KA-05-MD-4662) parked on the side of the road near Kadirenahalli bridge.
The police found three men inside the car who were later identified as 39-year-old Padmanabhanagara resident Yogesha and his collaborators Rajanna, 60, and Hariprasad, 57), both hailing from Tanakalu village of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh.
Finding them suspicious looking, the policemen questioned the trio, but they did not respond. Police noticed a bag on the car’s backseat and asked them what was inside. Yogesha told them that it contained Rs 40 lakh worth of demonetised currency notes, which they were waiting to exchange for valid currency.
The men, along with their car and a bag, were taken to the police station. During interrogation by senior officials, it was discovered that Yogesha had more cash at his house. A raid on his house resulted in the seizure of demonetised notes worth Rs 48 lakh.
The arrested men are from Andhra Pradesh and are involved in real estate and other businesses. They confessed to purchasing the demonetised notes from an Andhra Pradesh-based group, paying 10% of their total value, and had attempted to exchange them for 15% of their value in the city. A senior police official said the source of the notes was yet to be traced.
“We are writing to the Reserve Bank of India to check if the notes in such numbers are allowed to be exchanged six years after they were demonetised,” he said.
A senior official explained that the racket operates by selling demonetised notes worth Rs 1 lakh for Rs 5,000 to 10,000 in valid currency. The notes then pass through multiple hands, each time for a small percentage.
A case of cheating and violation of the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act has been registered based on a complaint from police constable Prashanth.