Sambalpur: Acting on a tip-off, a special squad of police seized Rs 1,42,91,500 from a car and arrested eight persons including a liquor trader and a PRO of a public sector bank in this connection Saturday night, police said Sunday.
The breakthrough came after police intercepted a car opposite Women’s College in the town and seized a huge amount of cash both scrapped and new notes from the vehicle. While seizing the cash, police arrested two sons Md Quizafi and Rifat Ali of the liquor trader Jiarat Ali and seized two pistols and five live bullets from their possessions.
They were brought over to the police station and based on their admissions police arrested the rest six persons. The revelation came during a press meet by SP Akhileshwar Singh at the district police office here Sunday The accused were identified as Rashmi Ranjan Rout (36) of Sakshipada and a public relation officer (PRO) of State Bank of India, prime accused and liquor trader Jiarat Ali (59) of Sonapali Square, his three sons Md. Quizafi (35), Rifat Ali (33), Sabtin Ali (31), Pankaj Kumar Rout (43) of Sakshipada, Kapil Jhajharia (37) of Marwaripada, Rabi Trivedi (40) of Nayapada in Gole Bazaar.
A case was registered in this connection and the accused produced in court from where they were remanded in judicial custody after the magistrate rejected their bail pleas. Jiarat, a liquor trader, has several shops in the town, Singh said. Earlier, police had received complaints about Jiarat moving in a car with some youths and trying to exchange huge amount of scrapped notes.
However, he managed to give police a slip. Alarmed over the development, SP directed Dhanupali police to form a special sqaud and keep a tab on the movements of Jiarat and his henchmen. While police were continuing with the probe it was informed that a Hyundai I10 car of Jiarat is carrying black money. Police immediately intercepted the car and seized both old and new notes amounting Rs 1,15, 22,500 from inside the vehicle while Jiarat’s two sons were arrested with the firearms.
Based on their admissions, police raided the houses of the accused and arrested them. During the raid Rs 19,38,550 was seized from Jiarat’s house, Rs 2,87,000 from Kapil Jhajharia’s house, Rs 2,92,500 from Ravi Trivedi’s house, Rs 1,51,000 from PRO Rashmi Ranjan’s house and Rs 1 lakh from the house of Pankaj Rout.
The seized cash included 85, 62,000 new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 denominations. Similarly Rs 25,29,000 of scrapped Rs 500 notes and Rs 32.500 lakh of Rs 5/10/20/50/100 denominations. The PRO used to receive 25-30 per cent commissions to exchange the black money in the bank while Kapil, Rabi and Pankaj were officiating as middlemen of Jirat.
Preliminary inquiries suggested that several bank employees and five people were involved in the fraud to legalise the black money of Jiarat. The team led by Sadar SDPO Brahmananda Gagarin Mohanty comprised Dhanupali IIC Prakash James Toppo and his counterparts Pradip Sahu, Srimant Barik of various police stations. PNN
