GUWAHATI: A man, who was carrying Rs 5 lakh in demonetised notes, was detained by the Central
Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Nagaland’s Dimapur airport on Friday. According to official sources, the CISF authorities received a tip-off that a man was flying from Kolkata to Dimapur in an Air India flight with “huge” cash.
Accordingly, they alerted the Income Tax (IT) department. The sources did not provide the person’s name but he was said to be a man called Ajay Singh.
The police confirmed the seizure of the cash. “Yes, Rs 5 lakh in demonetised notes was seized from the person. But we don’t know if the money is legal or illegal. The IT department is verifying it,” Dimapur’s additional DCP (crime), Shouka Kakheto, told Express. Meanwhile, the IT department has cautioned “all tribals of the State of Nagaland not to allow parking of money belonging to non-tribals and business enterprises in their bank accounts as they shall be doing so at the risk of facing penalties”.
The STs, living and earning in the Northeast, are exempted from income tax.
On Tuesday, Amarjit Singh, said to be a Bihar businessman, was detained with demonetised notes worth Rs 3.5 crore after he landed at the airport in a jet from Haryana. The amount was seized by the IT officials.
But later, Singh was let off and the money handed over to an individual after a young Naga businessman,
Anato Zhimomi, claimed it was his money which he had given to Singh to buy agricultural land in Haryana on his behalf.
He claimed that Singh had come to return the old notes to him as they had been demonetised. During investigation by the police, both the CISF personnel on duty and the taxmen denied having handed the money to anyone.
After two days of its mysterious disappearance, the cash was recovered from a petrol depot in the town during a raid by sleuths of the IT department on Wednesday night. Zhimomi is the son-in-law of Lok Sabha member and three-time former Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio.