Guwahati: Unknown persons left a bag full of cash amounting to Rs 62 lakh, in demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, in front of the donation box of the Ramakrishna Mission office in Shillong on Friday.
The functionaries of the Ramkrishna Mission informed the authorities and handed over the cash to the Income-Tax office.
East Khasi Hills police superintendent M.H. Kharkrang, who confirmed the recovery of the money, said that the investigation wing of the Directorate of Income-Tax was looking into the matter. He said that since there was no CCTV footage, it would be difficult to trace who abandoned the cash near the donation box.
Security sources, however, said that coal traders in tribal areas of the state kept huge stashes of cash.
Security sources said that they had inputs on many local traders contacting bank officials to exchange old demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes. The bank officials are said to have been offered big cuts for exchanging the old notes.
Meanwhile, security sources claimed that the police and I-T sleuths have intercepted old currencies worth Rs 70 crore which were suspected to have been heading for exchange or deposit in banks in the northeastern states from Guwahati.
Indicating that more such dumping of spiked currencies is expected, security sources admitted that several accounts in tribal states have registered an abnormal growth of cash deposits after November 8 but all such accounts have been kept under surveillance.
Informing that account holders would be asked to explain the source of money, security sources said that Income-Tax department sleuths have started collecting the details of deposits after November 8 in Northeastern states.
