Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Feb 16: The old series of Rs 500 and 1,000 notes have been demonetised, and holding them beyond March 31 this year in large quantities has been made a criminal offence. Still, it appears thatg the business of exchanging old notes with the new ones is thriving.
Four persons, who cheated an advocate by posing themselves as agents involved with note exchange and police personnel attached to city crime branch, stand arrested.
The arrested man happen to be Ramesh (33),who hails from Kalya village in Magadi taluk, Roopesh (37), residing at HVR Layout on Magadi Road, Puttaraju (47) from Malavalli taluk in Mandya district, and Mutturaya Shetty (42) from Muneshwara Block in the city. The policemen recovered Rs 26 lac in cash and other assets worth Rs 11 lac from their possession.
An advocate named Anand had reportedly told his friends, George and Tanuja, that he wanted to exchange old currency notes lying with him into new currency. They told the advocate about Ramesh and Roopesh, who they said, had offered to do this on commission basis. Anand had initially exchanged nine lac rupees through them by paying 25 percent commission. For exchanging the remaining Rs 17 lac into new notes, the concerned were holding discussions inside an Innova car belonging to Ramesh on January 13 this year, when Puttaraju and Mutturaya Shetty who came there in a two-wheeler, introduced themselves to be police personnel of city crime branch. They threatened those inside the car, took away the entire money including nine lac rupees in new currency notes, duly asking the people there to come to Basavanagudi police station, the police said.
Anand went to Basavanagudi station and made queries about his money, after which he was told that no CCB police had undertaken this operation. After Jaimaruti, assistant police commissioner of the department of control of organized crimes department discussed the matter with Anand, it became clear that fake police personnel were involved. A complaint was thereafter obtained and investigation was begun.
The police personnel looked through the cell phone numbers that were operational that day in the said spot, and succeeded in unearthing the fraud. Although Ramesh and Roopesh tried to initially project themselves as having been cheated, the truth came out after the other two were arrested and questioned. All of them were arrested and remanded to judicial custody. The officials said that the accused had shared the entire money looted by them equally and kept it with them without spending any part of the booty. Therefore, the entire cash amounting to Rs 26 lac was recovered including nine lac rupees in new currency. The Innova car and the two-wheeler used for the crime have also been confiscated by the police.