Two arrested for illegally carrying high value notes worth Rs 10 lakh

Police have recovered new high value currency notes worth Rs 10 lakh from a car at Debra area of West Midnapore on early Friday morning.

Police had prior information that a car would be carrying some high value currency notes illegally though the National Highway 6 in the wee hours on Friday. On the basis of specific information, the police were waiting at a particular point and they caught the car after chasing it down the National Highway.

Police have arrested two persons who were travelling in the car. Police are interrogating the accused who might have been smuggling the new currency notes. According to the investigating officers, most of the currency notes were in denominations of new Rs 2,000 notes. A detailed investigation has been initiated in this regard.

According to the preliminary investigation, police suspect that the accused have been engaged in the business of making black money into whites. Police also suspect that the two accused were a part of a racket that has been operating in the state ever since the announcement of demonetisation of high value currency notes by the Centre. Police came to know that these people were getting a commission of high percentage for turning black money into white. Police are probing to know the names of the other persons involved in the incident.

The investigating officers are also probing if Friday’s incident has any links with the racket that had been busted by the Siliguri police from Matigara on Thursday. Police recovered new high value currency notes worth around Rs 2.5 lakh from five persons, one of whom had claimed himself as an officer of the Criminal Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Police said that 127 of new Rs 2,000 currency notes recovered from the accused, identified as Shyamal Sarkar, Moloy Roy, Ankit Singhal, Sajal Ranjan Dey and Sudarshan Sen. Moloy Roy who is a resident of North 24-Parganas in the face of interrogation told the police that he is a CBI official. In the course of investigation police came to know that he is no CBI officer. Roy was remanded in police custody after being produced before a court in Siliguri. Police have come to know that the accused were involved in making black money whites against high commission. Police are trying to know the entire modus operandi.