16 arrested for bid to convert banned notes worth ₹100cr Meanwhile, Aligarh police also seize ~50 lakh in old currency notes

BIG FIND Bizmen from Hyderabad, Kolkata, Varanasi held for laundering demonetised notes

KANPUR: Businessmen and middlemen from Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Varanasi arrived in Kanpur a few days ago and checked into various hotels to close a deal to exchange old, so-called demonetised currency notes, for new. Late on Tuesday night, the Kanpur police swooped down on a city home where they found old currency notes, lots of them, in trunks, sacks, and cartons. The police were assisted by a team from the National Investigation Agency and the Reserve Bank of India. The police also arrested 16 people.

By Wednesday morning, the police had finished counting the money. There was ₹100 crore of it in old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, rendered invalid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise demonetisation announced last November.

“Out of 16 people who have been arrested, seven are businessmen, four are money converters and five are field agents. All of them have charged under sections 420, 511, 120B and 5/7 of the Specified Bank Notes (cessation and liability act) Act, 2017,” IG, Kanpur zone, Alok Singh told reporters.

According to Singh, the mastermind is a local businessman Anand Khatri, who, along with his men, was collecting demonetised currency notes from various businessmen for exchange and was stashing it at his house in Swaroop Nagar.

Singh said the police had been on the trail of the operation for six months based on a tip-off. The National Investigation Agency got involved after the seizure of ₹25 crore of old demonetised currency last month in Meerut and the arrest of a property dealer.

“The group had field agents who collected the money from major cities of Uttar Pradesh and handed it over to Khatri. The money was sent to Hyderabad (for exchange into new currency notes) from Kanpur, Varanasi and Kolkata. Their commission ranged from 15-40% and it depended on the desperation of the businessman concerned,” said Singh.

The arrested moneychangers from Hyderabad and Kolkata have told the police that they have paid ₹15 crore in new cur-

rency to Khatri and Yadav in the last six months after conversion.

“They haven’t revealed their modus operandi. We will be seeking their remand from the court for pointed questioning,” Singh said.

Anand Khatri’s lawyer Sharad Kumar Birla said it was too early for him to comment on the matter.

ADG, law and order, Anand Kumar said: “All the agencies which specialise in investigating such cases have been informed. We are waiting for their support to help us identify the backward and forward linkages.” ALIGARH: Aligarh police on Wednesday recovered ~50 lakh in old currency notes during a raid in a city hotel in Sarsaul area here. The police also claimed to have busted a gang involved in exchanging old currency notes with the arrest of five persons.

According to the police, trader Nitin Agarwal had given the demonetised notes to one Bhuvnesh Kumar, Neelkanth hotel in Sarsaul area, for getting exchanged for new currency notes. Agarwal had promised ~5 lakh to Kumar on getting the entire notes exchanged.

Police have taken Agarwal and Kumar into custody along with three others. City superintendent of police Atul Srivastav said: “The accused involved in exchanging old currency notes are being grilled by the police.”

Addressing the media, the SP said Aligarh police have succeeded in arresting a gang involved in exchanging old currency notes on commission basis. Police said SO Bannadevi Ved Prakash Saini was on routine patrolling when he got a tip off about the group. On this, a police team under SSP Rajesh Pande raided hotel Neelkanth and arrested Nitin Saxena, Nitin Agarwal, Gajendra, Pradip Kumar, and Bhuvnesh Kumar. An amount of ~50 lakh in banned currency notes was also recovered from their possession.

A case has been filed under Sec. 420/511 of IPC and under section 5/7 of Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act -2017, the SP said. BHOPAL: Candidates appearing for the army recruitment drive in Gwalior for the past week have hijacked a train, misbehaved with passengers, vandalised railway property and are also travelling for free, railway officials said. But, no action has been taken against them as railways feared that it will create law and order problem.

The recruitment drive is taking place from January 8 to 22, in which approximately 60,000 candidates are participating, and most of them are travelling by train. Maximum trouble was reported from Guna-gwalior section on the first day of the drive when the railways appeared illprepared for the sudden influx of thousands of candidates.

On January 11, hundreds of candidates boarded the train meant for passengers of Mukhya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojna, which was going from Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh to Rameshwaram. When the train entered Guna station, the candidates barged into it and forced the driver to take the train back to Shivpuri, about 100km north. Railway officials said the candidates wanted to take it to Gwalior, but the RPF used mild force to get the train vacated in Shivpuri.

IA Suddiqui, public relation officer, West Central Railways, said, “When the candidates were forced to vacate at Shivpuri, all of them fled from the spot, so no FIR was registered. Our main aim was to ensure the train started back on its route and there was no law and order problem.”

The railways’ problems did not end there as candidates entered into most of the other trains travelling on the route without ticket and even occupied the women’s and AC coaches, creating ruckus. Other passengers were outnumbered and, in most cases, there were too few security men to control the situation, officials said.

Siddiqui said, “It was very difficult for the RPF to control so many people. It is true that they even occupied AC coaches, but tackling them with brute force would have created an ugly situation as there were too many of them and we had to think of the passengers’ safety.”

A resident of Shivpuri, Sunita Agrawal, 42, was travelling alone in the Indore-amritsar Express. “When the train reached Guna, a large number of young boys entered the coach. The train was jam-packed. They were laughing, abusing and misbehaving with passengers but we were helpless. My two-hour journey to Shivpuri was horrible,” she said.

Direct Army Recruitment, Gwalior, director, Col Manish Chaturvedi said they had written to the railways to introduce some trains especially for the candidates but the request was not looked into. “It is the duty of district administration to make all the arrangements. They invite us to organise the rally. We had written to the railways to run special trains for 15 days so that passengers of other trains don’t have to face trouble. But railways didn’t do anything,” Chaturvedi said.

On why the railway did not run special trains, Siddiqui said, “Due to some communication problem, it could not be worked out ...”

However, other railway officials said running a train with 18 bogies costs between ~4.5 to ~6 lakh per day.

“The army told us to take money from the candidates. But it is a normal practice of candidates appearing for such exams not to purchase tickets, and we too look the other way as most candidates are poor,” a railway official said, requestinganonymity. Adistrict administration official, however, blamed both railways and army for the chaos, saying no prior necessary arrangements were made. “Guna is not well connected with Gwalior.

When the army and Railways knew that thousands of candidates would be travelling every day, they should have made necessary arrangements,” said a district administration officer.