Old currency worth Rs 10 lakh seized in Surat

THE TAPI police on Thursday seizeddemonetisednotesworth Rs 10 lakh from three persons from Uttar Pradesh. The police also seized Rs 3 lakh cash in various denominations from the trio, who claimed to be the employees of Bhartiya Micro Credit (BMC), a Lucknow-based firm that works with the central government for various schemes. The three were identified as Anupam Verma, Piyush Dubey and Shivshanker Rajnarayan — all residents of Lucknow.

Songadh police officials intercepted an SUV at a toll plaza near Mandal village of Songadh taluka in Tapi in the afternoon. On checking the car, the police found currency notes packed in paper. The police seized 200 old Rs 1,000 notes and 1,600 notes in the denomination of Rs 500.

Songadh police inspector M V Kikani said that on questioning, the three revealed that they were from BMC and were scheduled to meet BMC MD Vijay Pandey at the firm’s Surat office. They were told to deposit the cash in Union bank at Chikhli in Navsari district.

Songadh police informed about the cash seizure to the Income-tax department to carry out a detailed probe. Sources in the Surat I-T started questioning the three on Thursday evening.

BMC is a partner in implementing various schemes of the Centre, including the e-rickshaw project launched in Lucknow by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

More recently, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani also distributed over 500 auto-rickshaws in partnership with BMC in Limbayat area of Surat on October 23.