Bengaluru: In the fourth such incident involving policemen in the conversion of the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in exchange for valid denominations, the North Division police have arrested seven people, including a police sub-inspector and four constables, who robbed a businessman of Rs 16 lakh in valid denominations late last month.
The arrested are SI Mallikarjun and constables Manjunath, Girish, Chandrashekar, and Anantharaju. They were attached to the Kalasipalaya police station. Two civilians, Jaffar and Bhaskar, both welders, were also held, police said. The entire '16 lakh stolen has been recovered.
The incident occurred on November 22, when a businessman, Gangadhar, came to the city from Kunigal, as an agent had promised him 30 per cent commission for exchanging Rs 20 lakh. The agent told Gangadhar that he had Rs 20 lakh in old denomination and would exchange it for Rs 16 lakh, Peenya police said.
Gangadhar was asked to come to a spot in Peenya with his Rs 16 lakh where he was surrounded by seven men who identified themselves as policemen. They told Gangadhar that they got a tipoff about the illegal transaction and had come to conduct a raid.
They asked Gangadhar to show the cash and reveal its source, to which he had no answer. They then threatened Gangadhar and assured him that there would be no police case against him if parted with his money. Gangadhar saw through the scam and and lodged a complaint with the Peenya police on December 4, a senior police officer said.
Peenya police registered an FIR and started the investigation. They found five cops and two civilians involved in the crime. All the seven were arrested. The investigating officers recovered Rs 16 lakh in valid denomination from the accused. The arrested seven were produced before a court and were remanded to judicial custody on Tuesday.
