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Canadian_Nickle
Penny Hoarding Member
Canada
938 Posts |
 Posted - 06/23/2007 : 02:41:37
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Police arrest three, recover 3 kgs of coins, metal bars, melting machine from Simla Street factory; more raids to come
Express News Service
Kolkata, June 22: The police, who were claiming that the shortage of small change in the market was caused by a coin-melting racket, had their stand vindicated today.
Three persons were arrested and around 3 kgs of coins, some metal bars and a metal-melting machine were recovered from a house in north Kolkata.
The police had said that the coins were being melted, converted to small bars and smuggled to Bangladesh.
Acting on a tip-off, the Girish Park police raided a small metal melting factory at 77, Simla Street this afternoon. About 3 kgs of coins with denominations of Re 1, Rs 2 and 50 paise AND a number of bars were seized. The factory has been sealed.
The arrested men, Pintu Das (40) and Manobrata Das (29) of Shimla Street and Mohanlal Shaw (55) of Cossipore Road, have been charged under Sections 247 and 34 of Ipc (changing the nature of Indian currency), said Pradip Chatterjee, deputy commissioner (Headquarters).
He said Pintu Das, the owner of the factory, was the kingpin of the racket.
The trio had started this racket about three months ago. They purchased the coins from different parts of Kolkata, melted them in the factory and converting them to metal bars.
Then they smuggled them out to Bangladesh where these were used to make blades and other metallic busts. The bars were smuggled out through Bongaon and Petrapole borders. In Bangladesh, some 200 blades were manufactured from each bar, made out of some 50 coins, they had revealed during interrogations, police said.
“Why they used coins to make metal bars is the vital question, we are looking into it. We are also probing whether there was any bigger racket behind this, posing a threat to Indian currency,” Chatterjee said.
“We are also trying to gather inputs about their Bangladesh connections,” said Ajay Ranade, DC (Central). The police will soon raid other areas where the coins are melted.
________________________
"A nickel's nothing to scoff at."
C. Montgomery Burns
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CA10Ag250:CA50Ag100:CA25Ag30:CA500Ag48:US100Ag20:CA1000Ag16
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Canadian_Nickle
Penny Hoarding Member
Canada
938 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2007 : 02:50:28
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Kolkata: The city police are investigating the possibility of coins being melted and reused, with intelligence reports suggesting their being smuggled out of the country into neighbouring Bangladesh.
“Based on a complaint by the Reserve Bank of India, a team of detectives is exploring the places within the city where there is a practice of melting metals,” said Gyanwant Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Detective Department of the city police. “Till now, we have not been able to catch anybody in the act,” he added.
Cognisable offence
The RBI’s complaint was based on “unconfirmed reports that coins were being hoarded and melted” in parts of the city, according to the spokesperson of its press relations department. Any scarcity of coins, owing to such incidents, was, however, ruled out by the RBI.
While melting of metals was a cognisable offence, arrests could not be made on the basis of assumptions without concrete evidence, Mr. Singh said. Unless the offenders were caught red handed, it would be difficult to prove that the metal was extracted from coins and not other substances, he added.
Based on intelligence reports from other agencies that molten metals were being smuggled across the border into Bangladesh, troops along the Indo-Bangladesh border have also been alerted, sources at the Border Security Force said. No arrests have been made by the BSF so far, though there were unconfirmed reports that the metal was being used to make shaving blades, idols and other equipments.
________________________
"A nickel's nothing to scoff at."
C. Montgomery Burns
HoardCode0.1: M28/5CAON:CA5Ni35000:CA1Cu1200:CA100Ag345:
CA10Ag250:CA50Ag100:CA25Ag30:CA500Ag48:US100Ag20:CA1000Ag16
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Indian hoarder busted making to market...
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