Bengaluru: Currency exchange racket busted
A majority of the seized notes were of the newly-introduced Rs 2000 denomination.
Bengaluru: The Kalasipalya police have claimed to have busted a currency exchange racket and arrested a cloth merchant and seized nearly 50 lakh in cash. The accused, identified as Manoj Kumar, was trapped after the alert police intercepted one of his associates carrying Rs 5 lakh in cash on Tuesday.
Based on the information, the police raided his cloth shop in Cottonpet and recovered around Rs 45 lakh from him. Manoj Kumar tried to argue that the money was for disbursement of salaries of his employees, but had no documents about the source of the money or evidence of transactions to corroborate his claim. The police arrested the accused and seized the cash, a senior police officer said.
A majority of the seized notes were of the newly-introduced Rs 2000 denomination, he added.
The police suspect that Manoj was running a currency exchange racket, probably in connivance with some bank officials, and charging 30% commission for exchanging demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, suspect the police. The accused along with the cash was produced before the court and the police are investigating further.