As many as 16 people, including a noted builder, were arrested by the Kanpur Police in connection with the seizure of over Rs 96 crore in demonetised currency notes from the builder's ancestral house in Swaroop Nagar here.
Senior Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Kumar Meena said on Wednesday that Rs 95 crore belonged to Anand Khatri, the builder, and over a dozen others owned the remaining amount. They were arrested along with the builder.
This is the biggest seizure since old currency notes in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were banned in November, 2016.
Meena said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had gathered inputs about some companies and individuals involved in converting illegal currency into legal money and shared the information with Inspector General of Police, Kanpur, Alok Singh.
The IG collected more information about those running the money conversion racket and briefed the SSP Kanpur, directing him to carry out raids discreetly.
Following a tip-off, the SSP formed several teams headed by SP (East) Anurag Arya and SP (West) Gaurav Grover.
They nabbed four men involved in conversion of illegal money from the Swaroop Nagar area.
Initially they tried to mislead police, but later during intensive interrogation they broke down and confessed their crime, the SSP said.
They divulged information about the builder involved in converting black money into white by exchanging the old currency notes.
It was revealed that huge amount of demonetised currency was stored in guny bags in the builder's ancestral house near Gole Chauraha in Swaroop Nagar.
Police later nabbed the builder, who led the team to the site where the currency was stashed, SP (East) Anurag Arya told.
Police also raided three hotels from where 11 people including Santosh Yadav, a professor, were arrested, he said.
Preliminary probe indicated that the cash was hidden with an intention of converting it into legal currency, the SP said, but discounted the possibility of any terror angle.
The arrested were identified as Anand Khatri, builder, Santosh Yadav, professor, key liasioner Mohit Dhingra, Sanjay Agarwal, Manish Agarwal - all residents of Kanpur, Koteshwar Rao from Andhra Pardesh, Sanjay Kumar from Varanasi, Anil Yadav from Saharanpur.
Santosh Pathak and Sanjay Rai — both from Mirzapur, Ram Asrey, Dhirendra, Sanjeev Agarwal, Omkar Yadav, Ali Husain, and a woman from Andhar Pardesh whose identity was not immediately known.
