3 Crime Branch cops suspended for extorting trio of banned notes

BENGALURU: In a case of the fence eating the crop, three policemen attached to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) have been suspended for allegedly robbing demonetised currency notes with a face value of `1 crore from four people who were trying to exchange it for the new currency notes. Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar on Friday evening said, “CCB constables Narasimhamurthy, Gangadhar and ASI Obalegowda have been suspended. The DCP (central) has given a report regarding the incident. Two NGO activists are also found to be involved in this.”

A complaint was filed by a BMTC conductor on November 26 alleging that some fake policemen had extorted `1 crore from two women. Investigations have revealed that it was in fact the CCB policemen who had robbed the money. According to the complainant Subana N Mannangi, he had secured a `75 lakh loan from the National Co-operative Bank, Jayanagar and was supposed to pay EMIs of `1 lakh. Since he defaulted on the EMIs, the bank had issued him a notice. In order to prevent his house from being auctioned, Subana approached a realtor, Sathyanarayana, in Uttarahalli. The realtor said he would give Subana a commission if the latter brought someone wanting to exchange demonetised currency for new currency notes.

Through a friend Ratna, Subana came in contact with Ragini who had `1 crore in banned notes. On November 25, the trio went to BTM layout to meet Sathyanarayana with the cash. But as the exchange did not happen, they were returning when they met a person who introduced himself as Venkatesh. He told them that he would exchange the notes and asked them to come near Race Course Road the same evening. Around 8pm last Saturday, Ragini, Rathna and Subana, along with one Chandru, went to meet Venkatesh. They asked him to show the new notes and Ragini and Chandru confirmed that there was new currency notes. Ragini and the others then headed towards Yadav College with the old the notes. When they neared the College, five of Venkatesh’s associates who were in two cars stopped them and introduced themselves as Seshadripuram police.

They also took away the `1 crore in demonetised currency. Later, the victims visited Seshadripuram police station only to find out that nobody from the station had made any such seizure. Subana later filed a complaint with High Grounds police assuming that it was fake policemen who cheated them. But, police found out from CCTV footage that that one of the two vehicles used for the robbery belonged to CCB and three policemen were absent at work on November 25. After showing their photos to the complainant, it was confirmed that policemen were involved.

Why Extort Banned Currency?

According to police sources, some days ago, the CCB police had seized `3 crore in demonetised notes from a Tamil Nadu businessman and the notes were kept in the CCB strong room. But about `2 crore was taken out. However, since the case was not reported anywhere, the businessman brought this to the notice of a senior police officer who instructed the CCB police to deposit all the money in the strong room. In order to arrange for banned notes, the three CCB policemen extorted Subana and the others of the demonetised notes, the sources added.

The sources said the CCB policemen had done so at the behest of an ACP attached with CCB. But none of the senior officials confirmed the officer’s involvement. Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Chandragupta said that investigations confirmed that CCB officials had extorted money. “But I am not aware of money going missing from the strong room,” he added. Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Satish Kumar and DCP (crime-2) Jinendra Kanagavi were at CCB office to audit the seized cash till late on Friday night. Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said preliminary investigations indicated that one of the CCB policemen was in contact with a person who was allegedly involved in money exchange racket. “We are also probing whether these officials have abused their power and whether they were involved in such similar acts,” he added.