BENGALURU: Kalasipalya police on Thursday arrested a gang of three men, including a factory owner, for allegedly engaging in black money conversion for a fee. Police recovered cash worth Rs 50 lakh, including new and banned currencies, from them.
The arrested are Manojkumar alias Gulab Singh, Sudhakar and Pintu Singh. All are residents of Chamarajpet.
Police said that based on a tip-off, Pintu, a relative of Singh, was first nabbed at the bus station near Kalasipalya. The beat police, who were doing the rounds following Wednesday’s theft of Rs 1.37 crore worth currency by a cash van driver in Upparpet, were tipped off by an informer who had overheard Pintu’s phone conversation with a client about money exchange. Police picked him up after they found Rs 5 lakh on him. After he was grilled, he led them Singh’s residence, where police found Rs 45 lakh.
Singh, along with his employee Sudhakar, was taken into custody. Singh owns a factory that makes pressure cooker handles.. During interrogation, police learnt that he had approached many businessmen and realtors to convert their black money.
Police said Singh was charging 30% commission for converting Rs 1 lakh. Most of the notes are of Rs 2,000 denomination and police believe the involvement of bank officials in the racket. They also detained two staffers of banks in the locality for further interrogation.
Singh earlier tried to justify that the cash was for disbursement of salaries to his employees but there were no documents or evidence to corroborate his claim, a senior police officer said.