KOCHI: Nearly a week after the Kochi city police busted a currency exchange racket, the Ernakulam rural police on Thursday seized demonetised currency worth ₹2.71 crore and arrested five persons in this connection.
The arrested are Nithin Nandakumar, 29, of Kuruppampady, Perumbavoor; Anoop Sasidharan, 27, of Kadamattom, Kolenchery; Jiju Jose, 38, of Chunangamveli, Aluva; Ali Assainar, 27, and Ameer Kunju Mohammed, 36, of Randathani, Malappuram, and Laila Pareeth of Thottumugham, Aluva.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team intercepted the accused while they were transporting the currency notes to Kochi from Malappuram in a luxury car, near Paravur junction around 2.30 a.m. The car was intercepted when its driver attempted to speed away despite a signal from the police to stop the vehicle.
The police recovered 122 bundles of ₹1,000 notes and 299 bundles of ₹500 notes from the car. “They were on the way to hand over the notes to a person in Kochi on the direction of a Malappuram native. We are also probing their links with hawala rackets as well,” they said.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Laila, who runs a tailoring unit at Edayappuram in Aluva, had been acting as an agent between a currency exchange racket and those who were in possession of demonetised notes. Nithin is the unit manager of SBI Life at Perumbavoor, whereas Anoop is an IT professional. Ameer works at a carry bag making unit, while the remaining two are drivers.
The registered owner of the vehicle was identified as David Paulose of Mukkannur. A probe is on to find out whether he had links with the gang.
Preliminary investigations suggested that the accused were members of a racket that used to collect demonetised notes and gave them to anyone on a 20% commission.
A case under various Sections of the Specified Bank Notes Act, 2017, was lodged against them. The six were produced before a court which remanded them in judicial custody.
