Dera head among 6 held with Rs 75 lakh in banned currency

Amritsar, April 27

The CIA staff of Amritsar rural police today confiscated old currency notes that are now banned to the tune of Rs 75 lakh from six persons in the Basant Avenue area here today in the evening.

Among those arrested were a Dera head from Hoshiarpur besides five local traders. They were identified as Baba Sukhraj Singh, Rajat Vohra, Arun Bajaj, Naveen Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Pasit Gandhi. They were planning to exchange money through NRIs. As per information available, the CIA staff received a tip-off that the accused were carrying fake Indian currency and were travelling in a car. The informer also provided the number of the vehicle.

Sanjiv, in-charge CIA staff, said when they were going towards Kathunangal area, they located the car and started chasing it. The car reached Basant Avenue market where they entered a studio and saloon. The police team conducted a raid, confiscated a bag and took six persons into custody. It contained bundles of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in old Indian currency notes.

It was found that they were trying to exchange the money with new currency notes with the help of NRIs.

SSP, Amritsar rural, J Elanchezian said as it was a non-cognisable offence, the seized money would be produced in court which would impose a penalty on the accused. He said the case has now been handed over to the Civil Lines police.

Parvesh Chopra, SHO, Civil Lines, said the suspects have been arrested and will be released on bail. He said the income tax department has been informed about the seizure. — TNS