Bengaluru's former Corporator held in money-laundering case

Bengaluru's former civic Corporator V. Nagaraj, wanted in a money-laundering case, was arrested after a hot chase at Arcot village in Tamil Nadu's Vellore district, said police on Thursday.

"On a tipoff, our special team caught and arrested Nagaraj and his two sons -- Shastry and Gandhi -- after chasing a vehicle in which they attempted to escape from Arcot," city's Additional Commissioner of Police Hemant Nimbalkar told reporters here.

Arcot is around 235 km from Bengaluru across the Karnataka border in the neighbouring southern state.

"The accused will be brought to the city on transit remand from Vellore and produced before a local court on Friday for our custody to interrogate them in the money-laundering case," said Nimbalkar.

The three had been on the run evading arrest since April 14 when the police raided their residence at Srirampura in the city's western suburb and seized banned currency notes worth Rs 14.8 crore that were kept to exchange for new notes.

The city police formed four special teams to search Nagaraj after a civil court issued an arrest warrant against him in the case registered under Section 7 of the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act 2017.

A local court on May 5 also rejected Nagaraj's anticipatory bail application he filed through his lawyer on April 17, fearing arrest for allegedly exchanging the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with new notes for a hefty commission.

Nagaraj, 54, was an independent Corporator of the Bengaluru City Corporation from the Prakashnagar civic ward in the city's western suburb from 2002 to 2007.

--IANS

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