The Delhi Police has arrested two people from East Delhi's Laxmi Nagar area for possessing demonetised currency notes having a face value of around Rs 62 lakh. Police said that the arrested men claimed that they purchased the old notes by paying Rs 10 lakh in new currency notes.
The accused have been identified as Azad Singh (48), a resident of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Ezaz Ahmad (45), a resident of Delhi's Laxmi Nagar area. According to Priyanka Kashyap, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), East district, on July 6, on the basis of specific inputs received regarding old currency notes, a police team was formed and a trap was laid near Laxmi Nagar Metro Station.
"Police team managed to apprehend Azad Singh and Ezaz Ahmad with one bag and one polly bag containing old currency notes of denomination of Rs 1000 and Rs 500. A total of Rs 61,97,000 old currency notes was recovered from the accused," said the DCP.
"Teams of Special Staff, Special Cell, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Special Branch were called for their joint interrogation to find any foul play or any other angle," said the DCP. "The recovered old currency notes have been seized and legal action against both the accused persons have been taken under relevant provisions of Specified Bank Notes (Classification of Liabilities) Act-2017," said the DCP. "Income Tax department, Enforcement Directorate and RBI are being informed for initiating any action at their end if required," the DCP added.
The Centre Government had discontinued the old currency notes in November 2016, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation. The Centre had replaced old Rs 500 notes with new ones, but no replacement for Rs 1,000 notes was made. Instead, new Rs 2,000 notes were introduced post note ban. The government then gave people time till March 2017 to deposit their old currency notes at post offices, banks and Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
In 2018, the RBI issued new-look currency notes in the denominations of Rs 10, Rs 50 and Rs 200. And in 2019, the RBI introduced new lavender-coloured Rs 100 currency notes. It had asserted at time that all Rs 100 currency notes issued earlier would also continue to be legal tender.