Demonetised notes worth ₹14 lakh recovered in Kashi, three held

VARANASI: A week after the seizure of Rs 100 crore in demonetised currency in Kanpur, three people were arrested in Luxa area of Varanasi with old notes worth Rs 14 lakh during the wee hours of Wednesday, police said.

Circle officer, Chetganj, Satyendra Tiwari said all the recovered notes were in Rs 500 denomination.

“We got the information that three people – Ritesh Kumar Keshari, Rakesh Thawani and Pankaj Sarawagi – were present in a lane in Luxa area with old currency notes worth Rs 14 lakh. A team reached the spot and arrested them,” Tiwari said.

He said during interrogation Keshari told the police that he owned a shop where he exchanged damaged and soiled currency notes.

Tiwari said Keshari and his aides were about to get the old notes exchanged through a man whose identity could not be ascertained.

“We are trying to find out the source of the notes and the people involved in its exchange,” he added.

Tiwari said a case had been registered against the accused and they had been sent to jail after being produced before the court.

After the seizure of Rs 100 crore in demonetised currency in Kanpur last week, the police arrested 16 people who were running a well-oiled racket to covert old currency notes.

Businessmen belonging to Kanpur, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Varanasi were arrested from different hotels of Kanpur on Tuesday where they were putting up to negotiate the deal with brokers.

According to police, Kanpurbased businessman Anand Khatri was collecting demonetised currency notes from various businessmen for exchange and was stashing it at his house in Swaroop Nagar.