THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The probe on a failed money laundering attempt worth Rs 19 lakh detected by Nedumangad police last month has led them to the State Treasury and two banks. The source of seized new Rs 2,000 banknotes led the police to SBT and Bank of Baroda branches at Balaramapuram and the State Treasury. Now they are waiting for details from banks about the entities to whom currencies worth several lakhs went at a time when there were restrictions on withdrawals. In what seem to be like a plot of a movie, the laundering attempt was busted when an Aryanad-based gangster swindled money from a Balaramapuram-based mobster Shaji, who is also an SDPI worker.
He was lured into giving new notes promising old notes worth double this value in exchange by the gangster. Shaji suspected to have raised new notes from few contractors and businesspeople in the area. On being cheated, Shaji became frantic and tried extracting money from Sunil, a henchman of the gangster. Due to constant torture, Sunil’s father committed suicide, which brought the matter before police and gangster reached a settlement with Shaji and returned '19 lakh.
“We got information from RBI that the seized currency notes were the same they had supplied to the treasury. We have written to the banks demanding names of individuals to whom money was disbursed. Account holders such as contractors or some persons who retired recently would have been involved. Probably the bank employees could be helped them,” said a senior police officer. Meanwhile, though Shaji and his aides were arrested the probe for arresting the gangster has not been successful. “The gangster and his aides have gone out of state. We hope to arrest them soon,” the officer added.
