Rs 30 lakh in demonetised currency notes seized from realtor in Patna

The Patna police, on Thursday, recovered Rs 30 lakh in demonetised Rs 1,000 denomination currency notes from a flat in Ganesh Tower residential apartment building in Agamkuan locality of eastern Patna. They arrested a builder, Vinod Vishwas, and his four associates, for being in illegal possession of the money.

The seizure came six months after Rs 1,000 and rs 500 currency notes ceased to be legal tender, following an announcement by prime minister Narendra Modi on November 8, last year. It came over four months after the expiry of time given to exchange or deposit of such notes, on December 31.

This was the second such seizure in Bihar since the Centre, on February 28, notified the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, section 5 of which bars any person from knowingly or voluntarily, holding, transferring or receiving any specified (demonetised) bank note.

Earlier, on April 24, the police had seized old currency notes worth Rs 30 lakh from a house in Dharampur locality under Town police station area of north Bihar’s Samastipur district. It had also arrested from the spot an alleged peddlar of demonetised currency notes.

Giving details of the demonetised currency notes’ seizure and the consequent arrests, on Thursday, Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj said the Agamkuan flat of the builder was raided by the [police following a tip off.

“I directed the station house officer (SHO) of the Agammkuan police station, K N Singh, to verify the intelligence input. After receiving confirmation, a police team raided at the flat of  Vinod Vishwas and recovered old currency worth Rs 30 lakh,” he added.

The SSP said that Vishwas and his four associates were brought to the Agamkuan police station for interrogation. “In the course of their interrogation, we gained the impression that the builder and his associates might be into peddling demonetised currency notes. As such, they have been arrested”, he added.

The SSP said efforts were on to glean the identities of other members of the gang so that they could be nabbed, as well.

Section 7 of the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, provides that whoever contravenes the provisions of section 5 shall be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs 10,000 or five times the amount of the face value of the specified bank notes involved in the contravention, whichever is higher.

Officials said the builder and his associates had been held for being in possession of unexplained huge amount of cash.

.Even during the period when demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes could be exchanged or deposited in banks (November 8 to December 31, 2016), some big seizures had been reported in Bihar.

An abandoned bag containing old currency notes worth Rs 35 lakh, in Rs 500 denomination, and 14 liquor bottles was seized by the Railway police from the Ranchi-Patna Jan Shatabdi Express train at Gaya in south Bihar, on December 7 last year.

Even earlier, on December 1, 2016, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel seized Rs 1.2 crore in demonetised currency notes from a Thai national, at the Patna airport, following an intelligence input. The passenger had flown in from Lucknow.