TIRUNELVELI: In an attempt to exchange demonetised currency notes to the tune of Rs 1.50 lakh, a detergent soap factory owner ingeniously deposited Rs 50,000 each in three petrol bulks here requesting its owners to use that money to fill diesel only for auto-rickshaws.
On information that auto rickshaws had lined up in unusually in large numbers at a petrol bunk near Tirunelveli new bus stand, the Melapalayam police conducted an enquiry with the fuel station’s owner, Balu, about it.
They then came to know that an unidentified youth came in a bullet, with Vaiko’s (MDMK leader) picture drawn on the number plate the previous night and had given old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to the tune of Rs 50,000 and requested the bunk owner to fill diesel to auto-rickshaws.
According to the police more than 200 auto-rickshaws filled up diesel at a cost of around Rs 46,000 and recovered only the remaining amount of Rs 4,000 from the petrol station.
With the help of the CCTV footages, police, however, managed to identify the youth who tried to also play the Good Samaritan by depositing the amounts in advance at three petrol stations in the vicinity of Tirunelveli.
According to Melapalayam police, who have registered a case, the youth has been identified as Mugundhan, running a small detergent soap-manufacturing unit at V M Chathiram on the outskirts of Tirunelveli. The police added that he was seen wearing a T-shirt with portrait of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran printed in front and that of MDMK leader Vaiko’s picture on the back.
The same youth was reported to have given the same amounts of cash to two more dealers of Bharat Petroleum at Perumalpuram and in Melapalayam in the city the same day. However, one of the bunk owners refused to receive it, while the owner of the fuel station at Melapalayam gave the full amount to the police.
Responding to this attempt of exchanging allegedly unaccounted money, the Tirunelveli urban district secretary of MDMK, K M A Nizam said the person who attempted to exchange the demonetised amount through fuel stations had no connection with the party. “I doubt this may be a conspiracy to defame the party and its general secretary,” complained Nizam.
