Nearly six years after the Union government demonetised ₹1,000 and ₹500 currency notes, two persons — a dairyman and an e-rickshaw contractor — were arrested by the Delhi police on Thursday for allegedly possessing old currency notes worth nearly ₹62 lakh.
A senior police officer said the accused — Azad Singh, 48, and Ezaz Ahmad, 45 — “admitted” to have bought the old currency notes for ₹10-₹12 lakh.
DCP (East) Priyanka Kashyap said they received a tip-off on Wednesday regarding old currency notes being in circulation, following which a trap was laid by a police team near the Laxmi Nagar metro station on Thursday.
Old currency seized
The two men were caught with two bags containing old currency notes in the denomination of ₹1,000 and ₹500, with a total face value of ₹61,97,000. The authenticity of the notes is still being verified, said the police.
“Singh, who resides in Greater Noida, runs a dairy, while Ezaz, a resident of Laxmi Nagar, rents out e-rickshaws in the area,” said the senior officer, adding that more persons are involved in the racket and the police are probing their whereabouts.
Teams of Special Cell, Intelligence Bureau and Special Branch have been called to probe the racket, said the officer. The Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and RBI are also being informed for initiating any action at their end, if required, he added.
The old currency notes have been seized and legal action has been initiated against both the accused under relevant provisions of Specified Bank Notes (Classification of Liabilities) Act, 2017, DCP Kashyap said.
Another senior police officer associated with the probe told The Hindu: “The accused are being evasive during the questioning. So far it has been revealed that the accused had been buying old currency notes for more than a month from several people and passing them on to other co-accused for exchanging them with new currency notes. They earned a cut out of this arrangement.”
Police said Ezaz lived in Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2008. “We suspect Ezaz to be the main accused in the case as he was in direct touch with the dealer, while Azad was the facilitator who used to arrange old currency notes,” the officer said.
“As of now the transaction seems to have taken place on a small scale, but several agencies are questioning the accused to get information on the other persons involved in the racket. More details might reveal the larger nexus,” the officer added.
Explaining the possible ways in which old currency notes could be used by the accused, another officer said: “Often, they funnel it to other countries through hawala transactions. In some countries, the old currency is still a legal tender so the money is sent there.”
The officer said people involved in such cases collect old currency from those who still have them and supply the notes to dealers who operate illegal money exchange rackets. “The dealer takes a cut for every lakh rupees exchanged and that is how the old currency is exchanged for new notes,” the officer said.
