Delhi Police SI held for snatching demonetised currency

A Delhi Police officer has been arrested for snatching Rs 18 lakh in demonetised currency notes from a cloth merchant in Tilak Nagar area of west Delhi, police said on Sunday.

The accused has been identified as Sub-Inspector Sudhir Rathi, who was posted in Kalyanpuri Police Station.

According to police, a complaint was received from cloth merchant Amantullah Wasim on November 22. Wasim, who hails from Bihar, came to Delhi on November 7 for a business deal.

However, he could not strike the deal as the government ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes was announced the very next day.

Suffering acute lack of liquidity, Wasim approached one of his friends, Shailender Singh, who assured him that his sisters -- Payal and Monu, working in a city-based bank as Managers -- would help him. He also said they would exchange his Rs 18-lakh worth old currency notes, a police officer said.

Wasim handed over Rs 18 lakh to Shailender Singh, Monu and Payal at Tilak Nagar Metro Station during a meeting with them on November 17.

Later, Shailender Singh told Wasim that he had been able to exchange only Rs 3 lakh and that he needed more time to exchange the entire cash.

When he did not exchange the cash, Wasim complained against Shailender Singh, Payal and Monu to police.

However, during investigation, Payal and Shailender Singh told police that Sudhir Rathi had snatched the cash bag from them on November 21 when they were going to exchange the money in a car, he said.

They said in their statement that SI Rathi also threatened to arrest them for keeping such a huge amount of old currency in a car, the officer said.

Police arrested Rathi, who was presented in Tis Hazari Court on Sunday, where Duty Magistrate Deepika Singh remanded him to a day's police custody. Opposing the custody remand, Rathi's counsel Pradeep Rana pleaded that his client had been implicated in the case.

--IANS

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