Chennai: Police on Wednesday night arrested a Madras high court advocate for possessing demonetised currency worth Rs 2 crore in scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, in his car.
The advocate, T. Sivakumaran (41), was intercepted when he came to meet an acquaintance, a sub-inspector with the Special Branch-CID at Shankarapuram near Choolaimedu. Police claimed that sub-inspector Albert had no role and said that the advocate had come to meet him when the team intercepted his car.
Police sources said that the advocate was under the radar of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for some time now and he was rounded up based on the inputs provided by the central agency.
Choolaimedu police detained the advocate after the currency notes were found in his vehicle. The lawyer is a resident of Sairam Street in Adambakkam. Police officers quoted the lawyer as saying that he was handed over the cash by Muthu Krishnan alias Babu Reddy of Panruti.
“The advocate claimed that the cash was transferred onto his vehicle by two agents near Teynampet. We have formed special teams to trace the two of them,” a police officer said.
Police said that the seizure of the demonetised currencies would be investigated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Cessation of Liabilities Act, 2017. The currencies have been seized under section 102 of the Crim0inal Procedure Code (power of a police officer to seize certain property) and the advocate was produced before a magistrate on Thursday evening. Further investigations are on.
Meanwhile, the sub-inspector has not been booked as his role was not established. However, a departmental inquiry would be conducted as to why the advocate was to meet the policeman, according to police sources. The SI had been with the SB-CID for more than 10 years and was assigned to track developments in the DMK, police said.
