Over hundred desperate individuals may have succumbed to demonetisation distress up and down the country, but there are some on whom new currency notes appear to be raining.
In the last few days alone, the income tax officials have made recoveries of crores of rupees in new currency notes stashed by some individuals.
Rs 5.7 crore was recovered by IT officials from Bengaluru last weekHyderabad: Rs 65 lakh
Latest in the series is Hyderabad’s Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, who came under the CBI scanner on suspicion of hoarding new notes. The federal ivestigating agency on Saturday recovered Rs 65 lakh in Rs 2,000 notes from as it probed a note exchange racket.
K Sudheer Babu, the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, had kept this amount as his commission for allegedly exchanging over Rs 3.75 crore of old currency with the new one, CBI said in a statement.
“The money seized was the commission of K Sudheer Babu, as he kept it aside as his share, out of Rs 3.75 crore, which he misappropriated by fraudulently exchanging old currencies for new currencies from the post offices falling under his division. So far, CBI has seized Rs 92.68 lakh of new currency in Rs 2,000 denomination, in these cases,” it said.
Four people have been arrested as part of the investigation and remanded in judicial custody by a court, CBI had said.
CBI and ACB, Hyderabad have registered four separate cases to investigate the alleged frauds, it said.
Investigation so far has found that a senior postal official had “dishonestly and fraudulently” exchanged crores of rupees with various businessmen for a commission.
Babu, who had been absconding for last few days, was nabbed yesterday.
Gujarat: Rs 39.8 lakh
Elsewhere, Rs 39.8 lakh in cash was seized from two different cities in the state today, of which Rs 24 lakh was in Rs 2,000 currency notes.
Acting on a tip-off, sleuths of Special Operations Group (SOG) in Ahmedabad seized Rs 21,77,650 in cash and detained four persons who were allegedly carrying those to exchange old notes for a commission, SOG police inspector V H Jadeja said.
“The seized cash includes new currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 worth over Rs 10 lakh, while remaining notes are of Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 20 and Rs 10 denominations. Those detained will be handed over to the Income Tax department for further investigation,” Jadeja said.
In a related incident, police in Bharuch town in south Gujarat seized Rs 18 lakh cash, some of which was in new currency notes, from a residential apartment and detained three persons for questioning.
Bharuch A division police searched the house of one RL Modi and seized the money from him. The cash included Rs 14 lakh in Rs 2,000 notes, four notes of Rs 500 denomination, as well as notes of Rs 100 and Rs 50 denominations.
Two other persons detained along with him have been identified as Bina Modi and Ankit Modi, police said.
Karnataka : Rs 5.7 crore
This has come on the day income tax authorities made a seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes, 32 kgs of gold biscuits and jewellery and Rs 90 lakh worth old notes stashed inside the bathroom tiles of a hawala dealer in the far-flung town of Challakere in Karnataka.
The department seized the alleged undisclosed assets, as part of its raids against black money hoarders post demonetisation, from the residence of the said hawala operator who is yet to be identified.
Last week, the IT officials had recovered Rs 5.7 crore worth new currency notes from the premises of two engineers, working with the state government, and two contractors.
Chennai: Rs 24 crore
A fresh seizure of Rs 24 crore cash on Saturday in new notes was made by the Income Tax department, adding to the biggest haul of cash and gold post demonetisation, in which over Rs 142 crore unaccounted assets have been recovered in tax operations so far Chennai.
Officials said the fresh seizure of new currency, in Rs 2000 notes, was made by the sleuths from a car in Vellore on the insistence of the accused presently being interrogated in the case.
And finally!!
Cash worth Rs 10.5 lakh in defunct notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 was seized from a former BJP corporator near Saswad in Maharashtra, police said today.
The amount was seized from Ujjwal Keskar, a former BJP corporator from Pune, when he was on the way to Baramati with three others yesterday, they said.
Keskar, however claimed the cash was legitimate.
“A team of State Election Commission and police seized the cash worth Rs 10.5 lakh, all in scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, belonging to Keskar. Income Tax Department has been notified,” an officer from Saswad police station said.
Municipal council polls are being held in Pune district this month.
(With PTI inputs)
