Chennai: Around 36 sacks of torn and damaged currency notes of banned denominations were found in a garbage dumping ground in Madhavaram on Monday morning.
The incident occurred when local residents spotted suspicious bags in the dumping area and alerted the police.
“We saw a crowd of people at the garbage dump at around 8.30 a.m,” said Madhavaram Inspector Selvakumar. A team headed by the inspector went to the dump yard and seized the bags. On investigation, they were found to be old and destroyed notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, which were demonetised by the Central Government on November 8, 2016.
The investigation, however, will be difficult to crack, said Inspector Selvakumar.
“There aren’t any CCTV cameras as it is an open dumping ground. We will, however, find the accused soon,” he said.
Several such incidents have been noted in the recent past with people being arrested while in possession of the demonetized currencies. Possessing the demonetized currencies in large quantities is an offence after their expiry of the time limit to exchange them.
On April 15, 2018, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) seized Rs 2 crore worth of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes from a car of an advocate.
And on May 18, Rs 45 cr of demonetized currencies was seized from a shop owner's residence at Choolaimedu high road. The seizure of the demonetized currencies would be investigated by the Reserve Bank of India under the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017. However, none of these cases has reached any conclusion, nor have any arrests been made.
