2 held with over Rs 1 cr in banned notes in Tirupur

According to police, a team carrying out regular vehicle checks had stopped a car on Oddanchatram Road near Ganapathipalayam in Dharapuram.  While being questioned, the duo travelling in the car gave contradictoryreplies. Not satisfied with their replies, the police on suspicion conducted a thorough check of their car and found huge bundles of scrapped currencies.  

The cops then took the duo, identified as Kalaiselvan and Pratheesh from Coimbatore to the local police station. The two men told police that they took the scrapped money to exchange them through a ‘broker’ for original currencies in Madurai. 

However, they couldn’t exchange the old notes due to some issues and were returning to Coimbatore, when police nabbed them during a vehicle check. The duo was taken into custody for further grilling and police seized Rs 1 crore of old currencies and their car. 

Police suspect that a larger network of people was involved in the money exchange racket. The police have also informed the Income Tax department to find out if the huge cash was ‘black money’ stacked by evading tax payments. 

A year ago too, police seized Rs 1 crore in demonetised currency notes from three persons near Solipalayam near Avinashi in Tirupur.  The trio was waiting to exchange the money owned by a businessman by agreeing to pay a commission of Rs 10 lakh, when cops picked them up in July 2017. 

The Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped inNovember 2016 and possession of old notes is a criminal offence.