COIMBATORE: Acting on a tip-off, police personnel along with the I-T sleuths nabbed six currency exchanging agents inside a private college premises in Coimbatore on Monday night. At a time even banks were struggling to get new Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination notes to be distributed to their customers, these agents which included two women were caught possessing Rs 1.3 crore worth new currency notes of Rs 2000 denomination. I-T sleuths interrogated the agents for more than 10 hours.
On Monday night, city police got a tip off from Anbarasan, brother of minister SP Venumani, that few currency exchanging agents are misusing the name of the minister and are exchanging higher denomination notes inside the Sri Krishna College in Kuniamuthur. The college had also alerted the city police about the misuse of their premises by these agents. Police rushed to the college by 10.30 PM, nabbed six persons. Based on the information, I-T sleuths reached the spot and inquired about the matter while verifying the source of the cash. Among the six persons, three were identified as Tamilselvan, Loganathan and Manikandan.
As the agents had Rs 2000 currency notes for Rs 1.30crores, I-T personnel and police are checking whether, these agents have any links with the bank officials in the city. They also conducted a raid in the college premises as the incident happened inside the college. Top official in the city police said, "There were such rumours from November 24 and we continuously monitored the movements of some suspicious persons in the college premises. Finally, on Monday night we were able to nab them and are still interrogating them."