The Chennai City Police arrested five men including four bank employees after it was found that Rs. 25 lakh in demonetised currency was smuggled out to be converted into new notes — but landed in the hands of thieves.
The black market in the demonetised high denomination cash was exposed when an Assistant Regional Manager of the State Bank of Mysore, Manjunath, filed a complaint on Saturday stating that currency, totalling Rs. 25 lakh comprising Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, was missing from the vault of the bank’s branch in Shastri Nagar, Adyar.
Officials suspect
A special police team suspected it to be an inside job and followed two officials of the bank, Lokeshwara Rao and Elangovan.
Both were apprehended when they had a meeting with other members involved in the ‘operation’, at a temple near the bank on Sunday.
Unnamed customers
The bank manager, Lokeshwara Rao, cashier Elangovan and a car driver, Sakthivel, had allegedly planned to convert the currency into legal denominations for unnamed customers through ‘brokers’ at a private bank.
The deal was that Rs. 25 lakh would be converted into Rs. 21 lakh in legal tender with Rs. 4 lakh given as commission.
On Friday, Elangovan and the driver took the cash to be exchanged, but were waylaid by a gang with deadly weapons near Meenambakkam. The robbers fled with the Rs. 25 lakh kept in a suitcase.
The bank staff remained silent about the incident, but the theft came to light on Saturday when there was a discrepancy in the reconciliation between cash collected and distributed.
Mr. Manjunath then filed a complaint with the Shastri Nagar Police Station, and the investigation turned the spotlight on the two staff members, who had taken the cash out without the sanction of higher officials.
The bank staff then revealed their botched plan to police, leading to the arrest of two officials of a private bank — Mukesh and Manikandan — who had promised to convert the currency illegally for a commission.
The five arrested persons have been detained under Sections 409 (breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) and 34 (act done with common intent by several persons) of the Indian Penal Code.
Search for four more
The police said a search was under way for four more accused, including Rajesh who committed the armed robbery.
All those arrested were produced before a magistrate in the Saidapet Fast Track Court and remanded in judicial custody till December 4.
