The Uttar Pradesh Police, along with the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has unearthed demonetised currency notes worth Rs 96 crore in Kanpur on Wednesday, 17 January. As many as 16 people were arrested in the raid, including a noted real-estate developer.
Anand Khatri, the businessman from whom the notes were seized may now have to pay a fine of almost Rs 483 crore, Hindustan Times reported.
UP police has registered a case against Khatri under sections of the IPC and the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, for keeping demonetised notes over the permitted limit with him.
Vivek Khanna, former chairman, Central India Regional Council of Chartered Accountants told Hindustan Times:
Keeping the demonetised notes is punishable by a fine, which may extend to five times the amount recovered.
In Khatri’s case, this translates to about Rs 483.1 crore if police chooses to enforce the penal provisions and he is found guilty.
The Parliament passed a law in 2017 which stated that possession of more than 10 pieces of old notes by individuals and more than 25 pieces for study, research or numismatics is a criminal offence, attracting a fine of Rs 10,000 or five times the cash held, whichever is higher.
An income tax department official said it will help the police in building a foolproof case against Khatri and others.
Senior Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Kumar Meena told PTI on Wednesday that Rs 95 crore of the demonetised currency belonged to Anand Khatri, the real-estate developer, and over a dozen others owned the remaining amount. They too were arrested along with Khatri.
We received information of the presence of demonetised currency worth crores of rupees at a person’s residential premises in Kanpur. A raid was conducted. The RBI and the Income Tax Department officials were informed.AK Meena to PTI
"We are trying to see if there was any involvement of government officers," police sources said.
Another officer said the raid was conducted in the Sisamau pocket of Kanpur, and some people were detained from a hotel in Swaroop Nagar.
This is the biggest seizure since old currency notes in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were deemed illegal tender in November 2016.
Meena said the NIA had gathered inputs about some companies and individuals involved in converting illegal currency into legal money, and shared the information with Inspector General of Police, Kanpur, Alok Singh.
The IG collected more information about those running the money conversion racket and briefed the Senior Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, directing him to carry out raids discreetly.
Following a tip-off, the SSP formed several teams headed by Superintendent of Police (east) Anurag Arya and SP (west) Gaurav Grover. They nabbed four men involved in conversion of illegal money from Swaroop Nagar.
Initially, they tried to mislead the police, but upon being further probed, they broke down and confessed to their crime, the SSP said.
They divulged information about the real estate developer involved in converting black money into white by exchanging old currency notes. It was revealed that huge amounts of demonetised currency was stored in gunny bags in the builder's ancestral house near Gole Chauraha in Swaroop Nagar.
The police later nabbed Khatri, who led the team to the site where the currency was stashed, SP (east) Anurag Arya told PTI. The police also raided three hotels from where 11 people, including Santosh Yadav, a professor, were arrested, he said.
Preliminary probe indicated that the cash was hidden with an intention of converting it into legal currency, the SP said, but discounted the possibility of any terror angle.
Apart from Khatri and Santosh Yadav, the arrested persons include Mohit Dhingra, Sanjay Agarwal, Manish Agarwal – all residents of Kanpur, Koteshwar Rao from Andhra Pardesh, Sanjay Kumar from Varanasi, and Anil Yadav from Saharanpur.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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