Demonetised currency worth Rs 3.5 crore was seized after a joint team of Delhi police and Income Tax department officials raided Hotel Taksh Inn in Karol Bagh area in the Capital on Tuesday. Five people were detained and handed over to the I-T department. Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) said the men had been transporting old currency from Delhi to Mumbai where they would convert it into new banknotes.
The seized money belonged to hawala operators based out of Mumbai. “They had hired packaging specialists who pack these notes in such a manner that they are even undetectable by airport scanning machines,” Yadav said, adding that the cash was packed with wires and kept with telephone equipment in check-in bags.
The arrested men have been identified as Fazal Khan, Ladu Ram, Mahavir Singh, Ansari Abuzar and Ansari Affan, PTI reported. I-T officials found numbers of some hawala operators on their phones and have seized them. The men were being questioned to establish the source of the money and understand their modus operandi, reported Hindustan Times.
On Saturday, Rs 13.5 crore in both old and new banknotes, had been seized from a law firm in Greater Kailash. Rs 2.5 crore of the entire amount was in new currency. About Rs 7 crore were in old Rs 1,000 notes and Rs 3 crore in Rs 100 denominations.
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