HYDERABAD: Over the last year, at least 254 persons have been arrested in 80 cases and over Rs 35 crore was seized following the announcement of demonetisation. The money seized is from the tri-commissionerates - Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. Further probe in the cases yet did not fetch much about details of the owners of the cash though. All those apprehended were the middlemen who tried to exchange the money, but none of them owned the money.
A whopping Rs 34.83 crore of demonetized currency was seized by the Hyderabad police alone in 46 cases. This is excluding the case of Musaddilal Jewellers in Banjara Hills, where the Income Tax department found misappropriation of Rs 100 crore worth sale of gold within three hours after PM Modi's announcement.
The Hyderabad police have arrested 220 persons in 46 cases and seized over 34.83 crore of demonetized currency and Rs 35.86 lakh new currency, that was being diverted from banks. Of these 46 cases, 38 cases are still under investigation while eight cases are under trial.
In the neighbouring Cyberabad and Rachakonda commissionerates, Rs 1.08 crore in 16 cases and Rs 80.85 lakh cash in 18 cases respectively has been seized by the police.
In a few instances, the police went ahead based on the confessions of the nabbed persons, but in vain. "Based on the confessions of the middlemen caught with the demonetized cash, out teams went to catch the prime accused, but they had fled by then and are still absconding. It was not clear how these people got lured to exchange the demonetized money despite the government declaring them invalid after certain time," said a senior police officer.
Responding to a query, the officer said "The cash seized was handed over to the Income Tax department for further probe. Among the cases booked, few are charge sheeted in the court and others are under investigation. Some people involved in the cases are still at large."
Besides these, the IT department, Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate have booked few cases, where huge amounts of money was diverted into the accounts of people of very-low profile. In a case at Khairatabad, a cabbie got Rs seven crore deposited in his account on a single day.
Prominent cases:
The CBI had booked three cases in connection with the fraudulent transactions done at the postoffices in city, where around Rs 2.9 crore of demonetized currency was illegally exchanged by the postoffice authorities.
At Banjara Hills, inspector of Tappachabutra police station, Y Rajasekhar and two others were arrested for robbing a businessmen of Rs 78 lakh cash, after calling him to city on the pretext of exchanging the cash with new currency notes.
In a recent case on October 31, a realtor hailing from Prakasham district in Andhra Pradesh and living in Hyderabad was arrested by the task force police of Hyderabad, when he was waiting for a source to exchange Rs 90 lakh demonetized cash. The cash was handed over to him by his realtor friend at Vijayawada, who is currently absconding.
Two employees of Syndicate Bank in Saroornagar were arrested for illegal exchange of Rs six cash in the bank. The duo was suspended by the bank, after which one of the accused returned Rs 5.6 lakh to the bank.