Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), a pioneer Intelligence Agency of the Government of India, zeroed in on an office premises at Bharuch in Gujarat State and recovered about ₹ 48.91 crores of demonetised currency in ₹ 500 and ₹ 1,000 denomination currency notes.

Acting on the specific intelligence, the officers of DRI, Surat,  assisted by the officers of CGST Vadodara-II raided a premises of M/s Yamuna Building Material, GIDC Panoli, Bharuch and recovered Specified Bank Notes (demonetized ₹ 1,000 and ₹ 500 currency notes) of face value of ₹ 48,90,96,000/-(Forty Eight Crore Ninety Lacs and Ninety Six Thousand) on 8th / 9th December, 2017.

Under Section 7 of the newly enacted The Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, whoever contravenes provisions of Section 5 of the said Act shall be punishable with fine which may extend to ₹ 10,000(Rupees Ten Thousand) or five times the amount of the face value of the specified bank notes involved in the contravention, whichever is higher.

In the instant case, with the demonetised currency detected by DRI to be of the order of about ₹ 49 crores, the fine is expected to touch about ₹ 245 crores. The persons whose name appear in investigations will also be probed. Therefore, the ramifications can be wide and far reaching.

DRI is filing a complaint in the Court against the three (3) persons involved.

The various details are with DRI now and are a matter of investigation.

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Penalty for possession of demonetised notes can include fines up to a multiple of the notes' face value. Authorities seized specified bank notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination with an approximate face value of Rs. 48.91 crores at commercial premises following targeted intelligence; criminal complaints are being filed against three persons and investigations continue. The seizure invokes Section 7 of The Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, which prescribes a penalty for contravention of Section 5 up to a stated monetary cap or five times the face value of the specified bank notes involved, whichever is higher.