Man who 'converts' demonetised currency arrested

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths on Monday arrested a 35-year-old man who was allegedly part of a Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) smuggling and distribution racket, and have seized fake notes with a total face value of Rs 10 lakh from the accused. According to the DRI officials, the accused was still allegedly accepting demonetised currency and, in return, he would hand over 11 per cent of the amount in notes that are currently in circulation, the agency claimed. The agency term this arrest as a "big-catch".

The arrested person has been identified as Rehan Khan, who claimed to be associated with some political party, and also claims to be running an NGO.

In a month-long operation, the DRI sleuths had earlier arrested Congress office-bearer Haji Imran Alam Shaikh, his uncle Zahid Shaikh and Khar-based builder Mahesh Alimchandani in the said racket.

According to the DRI sources, interrogations from Haji Imran and others revealed that they would allegedly receive consignments of FICN from Khan.

"Khan appears to be the top person in the hierarchy of this syndicate. He had gone into hiding every since he got a whiff that DRI is looking for him," said a DRI source, requesting anonymity.

The agency is now probing how Khan utilised the demonetised notes.