Raipur
Two suspected Maoists were arrested while going to exchange the currency notes of Rs 2000 denomination in different banks in Bijapur district under Bastar division in Chhattisgarhon Friday.
The accused, Gajendra Madvi and Laxman Kunjam, were overpowered by policemen when they were trying to break a barrier erected to check the vehicles at a particular place in Bijapur town, police said.
The two suspected Maoists, going in a bike allegedly to deposit the currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination in the bank accounts opened in the names of different persons, tried to flee when police stopped them at a place in the town, sources said.
“Eleven bank passbooks and currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination worth Rs six lakhs were seized from them”, according to Bijapur district superintendent of police Anjaneya Vaishney.
During the interrogation, the two accused told the police that Naxal commander Mallesh, member of platoon number ten of outlawed CPI (Maoist), had ordered them to exchange the currency notes worth Rs eight lakh in the banks.
Accordingly, they deposited Rs 1.86 lakhs in their bank accounts and were carrying Rs six lakh to deposit in the accounts of other persons opened in different banks, police said.
A senior police officer posted in Bastar said that police was kept on alert across Bastar following intelligence inputs that Maoists were frantically trying to exchange the currency notes of Rs 2,000 denominations in the banks after RBI decided to phase them out.
