Ahead of March 31 deadline, Rs 4.6 crore cash in demonetized notes seized in Mumbai in 24 hours
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Mumbai police on Wednesday seized at least Rs 4.6 crore cash in demonetized notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in two separate cases and arrested 12 people in connection with the case.
According to senior officials, people who have old notes in their possession are scrambling to get them exchanged before the March 31 deadline.
The deadline is applicable for those who were not in the country from November to December 2016, and are therefore eligible to get their now defunct notes exchanged by depositing them at the Reserve Bank of India.
In addition, authorities will also start applying the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017 from April 1, under which persons carrying more than 10 demonetized notes will have to pay a penalty of five times the amount they were carrying.
Case 1:
In the first case, Sachin Patil, DCP (Zone 7), and his team intercepted a taxi and arrested all four of its occupants for carrying demonetised notes worth over Rs 1.5 crore.
According to Patil, a trap was laid on the basis of credible information by their sources. “We had got a tip-off that scrapped currency will be carried in a taxi for exchange with new notes on basis of commission 55 percent,” he said.
The kaali peeli taxi, enroute from Dockyard, was intercepted near Deepa Hotel in Ghatkopar (W). Upon checking, cops found two bags containing Rs 1.51 crore in demonetised currency notes.
The accused were identified as Rizwan Ghulam Rasul Kazi (45), Ayyaz Mohammad Akhtar (26), Danish Mohammad Rafi (26) and Rehan Hussain Shaikh (30). Kazi, the taxi driver, and his accomplices were supposed to get 2 percent commission.
Case 2:
On Wednesday night, the Crime Branch of Mumbai police arrested eight persons, including a doctor and a jeweller, who were in possession of Rs 3.13 crore cash in demonetised notes.
Acting on a tip-off, the cops laid a trap and cornered the eight men who were planning to come to Sakinaka to exchange the old notes.
The accused have been identified as Abdul Ansari, Girish Shah, Vinod Sanghvi, Farooq Shaikh, Anwar Shaikh, Mukesh Mehta, Dr Renold D’mello and Sakib Shaikh.
In both cases, the cops have arrested the accused and notified the Income Tax Department about the seizures.
