Two youths carrying cash amounting to Rs 1.70 crore were arrested from Kotwali police station limits on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Notably police on Wednesday had seized Rs 11 crore cash in Mahasamund that was being smuggled to Odisha in a car. In view of the incident Raipur police was on alert and was carrying out checking at different locations across the capital city.
“During one such checking near Nahata market in Sadar Bazaar locality, two youths -both natives of Gujarat were nabbed. They were carrying cash Rs 1.70 crore in two bags and were riding a Jupiter scooty,” Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Prafull Thakur said, adding that the money meant for Hawala transaction.
The accused have been identified as Harshad alias Mukesh Kumar and Sagar Desai both native of Patan in Gujarat. They used to work as courier boys who pick up cash on phone calls and then dropped the money at specified locations.
According to police, they had arrived in Raipur a few months ago and were living in Devendra Nagar locality.
“Since the cash amount was high, Income Tax (IT) department sleuths were also informed to investigate the case further,” ASP Thakur stated.