Ahmedabad: Nine years after the Indian govt demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the Sanand police seized a huge cache of the banned currency on Thursday.
According to an official statement, Sanand police confiscated demonetised notes with a face value of Rs 1.90 crore from two men. This recovery indicated that the banned notes were still in circulation despite the govt’s 2016 policy rendering them invalid.
On Nov 8, 2016, the Indian govt announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, aiming to curb black money, counterfeit currency, and corruption. The move invalidated these high-denomination notes, and citizens were given a specific window to exchange them. After the deadline, these notes ceased to be legal tender. However, in the years that followed, reports of people illegally circulating these demonetised notes continued to emerge.
In this recent operation, based on a tip-off, the Sanand police set up surveillance on the Bavla-Sanand road. They intercepted a white car with a Mehsana registration number and found two men carrying large quantities of demonetised currency notes. The seized currency included 29,756 notes of Rs 500 denomination and 4,154 notes of Rs 1,000 denomination.
The suspects were identified as Bharat Rabari, a resident of Ambliyasan in Mehsana, and Amrat Rabari from Gandhinagar. Sanand police inspector H G Rathod said that an investigation was underway to determine whether the seized currency was part of a larger illegal network. This seizure highlights the ongoing issue of demonetised currency being circulated illegally, even years after the govt’s ban on these high-denomination notes.
