With the arrest of three persons, the Sadar police on Saturday claimed to have busted a racket of replacing demonetised Rs 2,000 currency notes. The accused were distributing the demonetised notes to poor women, who were then exchanging them at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by submitting their Aadhaar details. The racket had been operating for months, with one of its the kingpins running a snack shop on the footpath near Vidhan Bhavan. The accused have been identified as: Nandalal Govardhan Maurya (35), a resident of Mariyam Nagar, Sitabuldi; Rohit Nageshwar Bawne (34), a resident of Plot No 158, Prem Nagar, Zenda Chowk, Shanti Nagar; Kishore Ramesh Bahoriya (30), a resident of Plot No. 302, Sai Srushti Apartment, Sant Gajanan Nagar, Zingabai Takli; Anil Babulal Jain (56), a resident of Dakshin Miloni Ganj, Gohelpur District, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh; All the four accused have been arrested by the police.

 

The Sadar police received a tip-off that Maurya, who was selling peanuts near Vidhan Bhavan, was also operating the racket. Jain was collecting demonetised Rs 2,000 notes from across the country and had contacted Maurya for help in replacing them. The deal was fixed with Jain promising to give Maurya Rs 200 for each for converting the notes 10 notes of demonatised Rs 2000 into Rs 500 currency notes. Maurya first visited the RBI at Samvidhan Square and successfully exchanged 10 notes of Rs 2,000 for Rs 500 notes. After learning the process, he began employing poor men and women in the racket and offered them a daily commission of Rs 300 for exchanging the notes at the RBI.

 

Acting on the tip-off, the Sadar police conducted a raid on Saturday and apprehended the accused. They recovered Rs 60,000 (120 notes of Rs 500 denomination) from Maurya, Rs 62,500 (one Rs 2,000 note and 120 notes of Rs 500 denomination) from Bawne, and Rs 80,000 (160 notes of Rs 500 denomination) from Bahoriya. During interrogation, the accused revealed details of the racket and admitted that they were operating under the instructions of Anil Jain, who was in possession of a large amount of demonetised currency. The arrests were made by Sr PI Manish Thakre, API Nitin Vitole, PSI Nilesh Ghogare, and other staff members, including Milind Bhagat, Satish Gohatre, Amol Daundalkar, Ashish Bahal, Sachin Kawale, Pankaj Tiwari, and Balaji Gutte.